ZeroIntelligence.net

UPDATE: Additional info discovered. Details in the extended entry.

The following “alert” came across parents’ emails Sunday via the district’s communication network in Mariemont City School District (suburban Cincinnati):

Dear Parents and students,

The high school auditorium is used by a local church for services on Sunday mornings. This morning, Feb. 26, a prop to be used by one of the minsters (sic) was left behind on the stage.

This prop was a facsimile of the Bible that when triggered would emit a small amount of flame. The prop was not used, just left behind accidentally.

Later today, parents and students came to the auditorium to work on the set for the upcoming musical. When the prop was discovered by a student, the authorities were called immediately which was the correct thing to do.

The Mariemont police and fire departments responded and the facility was cleared, the prop removed and a thorough inspection of the high school by officials and canines undertaken. After discuusions (sic) with the chruch (sic) official, inspections of the facilities, and analysis of all information, I can assure you the high school is safe and school will be held as ususal (sic) tomorrow morning.

Gerald Harris
Superintendent

This alert raises a number of questions:

1. Did the superintendent really write this or has someone hacked into the high school communications system?
2. If the superintendent did indeed author this alert, how can we verify that he passed the equivalent of today’s 9th grade proficiency exams?
3. If the children had been exposed to a real Bible, not just a prop, would we have called the SWAT team?
4. Will the district offer counseling to students who witnessed the Bible prop?
5. Did the minister commit a felony by knowingly bringing a dangerous ordnance into a school safety zone?
6. Does a Bible prop left behind in a public school qualify as an explosive device?
7. Have the K-9 officers received adequate training for handling flaming Bibles?
8. Has anyone sued anyone yet?

Well, at least no one seems to be guilty of promoting the alternative theory of intelligent design here.

Contributed by a long-time reader.

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If Mariemont seems to ring a bell it is because they have been profiled previously.
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Toy gun on school bus causes stir

Loraine Admiral King High School (in the Lorain City School District) has a zero tolerance policy on toy guns. Violators face a ten day suspension prior to expulsion.

Police and school officials will continue an investigation today to determine who carried the toy gun on the loop bus that was running from Lorain Admiral King High School to Longfellow yesterday at about 3 p.m., Schnurr said. No charges had been filed as of last night.

Schnurr said the school had been told about the toy gun before the bus pulled into the middle school.

When the bus arrived at Longfellow police as well as officials from the school and the bus company searched it and recovered the toy gun. The perp had abandoned the toy and left the bus but police and school investigations continue in an attempt to identify the culprit.

[School spokesman Dean] Schnurr said “Whoever had been carrying the gun had dropped it and left it on the bus when they got off. No one we’re aware of saw it being used in a threatening manner or being waved at anyone.”

A police investigation for an action that is not criminal, plus a school district investigation. The goal: to expel a student for posession of a toy gun that was not used improperly. Does this strike anybody else as ridiculous?

Threatening Racial Graffiti Found Inside High School
Principal Recommending Expulsion For Student

Jeff Cassell, Principal at Butler High School in the Vandalia-Butler School District wants to throw the book at a 17 year-old vandal. He has suspended the student for 10 days and is recommending expulsion as punishment for vandalizing a bathroom.

Authorities said two African-American students were the targets. According to a police report, the racial graffiti was painted on a stall inside the boys restroom.
…
Investigators said the student could face ethnic intimidation charges. The superintendent said if the student is found guilty, the student may be expelled.

If you intimidate somebody because they are a nerd, that’s okay. If you do it because they are a different race you’ll get expelled.

Superintendent Christy L. Donnelly will now rule on the expulsion.

Handcuff incident to be probed
Ohio police handcuff 5-year-old after bus fight

Izell Finch, a kindergarten student in the Hamilton County School District, was restrained by a school bus driver and then handcuffed by two police officers. Mekel Finch, the boy’s mother, has filed suit against the driver, the two officers, the bus company and the City of Cincinnati.

The suit accuses the bus driver of grabbing Finch around the neck, wrapping her legs around him and detaining him until Cincinnati police arrived.

Minutes later when officers [Douglas] Snider and [Kaneshia ] Howell arrived, the suit added, the child - who was hiding under one of the bus seats - was placed in and kept in handcuffs “for an unreasonable amount of time.” Video from a camera mounted inside the bus - a video the bus company has refused to share with Finch’s family and lawyer - could verify the allegations, the suit said.

The child was charged with no offense.

Police Chief Tom Streicher was unaware of the incident until notified of the court case on Tuesday. He has since put the two officers on desk duty and removed their police powers so they cannot carry weapons. He has also launched an internal investigation.

The suit explains that Finch was detained by the bus driver after being struck by another boy. The bus company has reviewed the security tape and concluded that there was nothing untoward in the driver’s handling of the situation.

Finch said her son now has nightmares.

“He’s just really going through a lot right now,” she said.

9 Students Sent To Hospital After Eating Mints

A student at Jackson Memorial Middle School brought a package of Blast Energy SuppleMints to school and shared them with his classmates. These peppermint breath mints resemble Altoids and contain 15 mg of caffeine per serving of 6 mints. For reference, a Coke contains 46 mg of caffeine. The students were taken to the hospital, treated and released. The boy who brought the mints was suspended for 10 days for possession of a look-alike drug.

Cheryl Haschak, superintendent of the Jackson Local school district, said the suspension was for violating the school’s ban on drugs, which covers drug-free items that look like pills.

Police estimate about 39 mints were unaccounted for and could have been eaten by the students.
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Police were investigating and said they would file charges if the mints contained illegal substances. Caffeine is legal.

Holy overreaction, Batman! The school hospitalized 9 students for consuming considerably less caffeine than what you get from a can of soda. Then they realized they couldn’t go after the student for illegal drugs since both caffeine and peppermint are currently legal substances so they decided to categorize breath mints as look-alike drugs. No Altoids, Tic-Tacs or M&Ms allowed at Jackson Memorial!

Better ban gum too - somebody might mistake it for Nicorette.

(Tip credit to Bumper and Tori in Texas)

Boy faces charges for violating gun rule

I’ve heard some long-winded charges before but this one takes the cake. A 12 year-old student at Girard Middle School in the Girard City School District is facing criminal charges of “delinquency by way of illegal conveyance or possession of an object indistinguishable from a firearm in a school zone”. The indistinguishable item was a laser pointer in mini-pistol replica form. He was also charged with “delinquency by way of aggravated menacing” for pointing the laser pointer at other students.

According to police reports, during the noon recess at the middle school, two boys went to the school principal, David Leo, and told him that a boy was threatening kids with a gun.

Leo went to the boy and asked if he had a gun. The boy showed the principal a laser pointer that looked like a small handgun.

“The replica was authentic looking and could be easily mistaken as a real gun,” the police report stated.

Well, sure - as long as the real gun you’re mistaking it for is 3 inches long and shoots red dots of light.

In addition to the criminal charges and immediate suspension the 5th grader will be facing an expulsion hearing for violating the school’s anti-gun policy.

Beer outing in Germany ends in suit

Updated 17 December 2004: Parents and students await results of appeal.
Updated 03 March 2005: Court finds for the students, orders reversal of disciplinary action.
Updated 08 March 2005: Links to articles on court decision posted. School Board likely to appeal.
Updated 16 March 2005: Mariemont issues statement that they will appeal judge’s verdict. Details at bottom of post.

19 students from Mariemont High School were taking a trip to Bavaria. The school left it up to their parents whether or not the students would be permitted to drink beer with their hosts. Some of the students went overboard and the school reacted by punishing all students who had been drinking on the trip.

Seventeen of the students, when they returned home, were suspended for drinking in violation of school rules, setting off a battle between parents and school officials that will head to federal court next week.
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The suit states that one of the chaperon teachers became alarmed and tried to discourage the drinking, telling the students they were in “big trouble.” The nature of the trouble became clear when the students arrived home and were greeted at the airport by school officials.

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Food Fight Illegal? Five Students Face Charges

A recent 60-second food fight involving dozens of students at Kings High School in the Kings Local School District has resulted in criminal charges against five students.

The school resource officer, deputy sheriff John Fain, had no comment.

The principal, Thomas Higgins, said it wasn’t his decision to file charges.

The prosecutor, Rachel Hutzel, said she stands by her decision.

Two students were suspended from school.

Other parents have hired lawyers, so the food fight may end up as a court fight, Fuller reported.

Fain described the hot dog, ice cream and french fry toss as a “riot”.

(Tip credit to Opinion Journal)

Male student among 4 strip-searched at school

Four students were recently strip searched at the Toledo School for the Arts, a charter school in the Toledo Public School System. When cash and a money order were found missing the four suspects were all stripped, despite the bulk of the missing items being found on the first student searched.

The previously undisclosed search of the male was revealed yesterday in a letter sent to parents. He had none of the stolen money.

After an art teacher noticed a $295 money order and $120 cash missing, three female students and the male student were strip-searched. The money order and $67 were found on the first female student searched.

Director Martin Porter apologized to the innocent victims but defended the search itself. He stated that more strip searches will be used in the future if they are similarly warranted.

(Tip credit to Tori in Texas)

Teen Acquitted Of Rape Charges Remains Under School Suspension

DeAngelo Riddle was arrested in class, handcuffed and taken to the police department to be booked. The charges were juvenile delinquency and rape based on the testimony of two girls at his school, Northwest High School.

Magistrate Donald Webb acquitted Riddle at a trial in Hamilton County Juvenile Court in October after concluding that there was not enough evidence to convict Riddle of the juvenile delinquency charges, and that the testimony by the girls lacked credibility.

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