8-year-old suspended for bringing syringe-like device to school
Eight year old Xiomara Roman brought a syringe to school. It was the one her mother (Sandy) had used to give their cat oral antibiotics. Unfortunately a teacher noticed it and the result was a call to the Fitchburg Police and the Department of Social Services. Xiomara ended up with a four day suspension from school for this blatant drug related offense.
“This is ridiculous. I don’t agree with her bringing it to school, of course, but a four-day suspension?” Cortes told the Sentinel and Enterprise of Fitchburg. “I got the call at work, and I almost killed myself driving from Gardner.”
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Cortes said she was questioned by Fitchburg Police and the Department of Social Services, both of whom were called by school officials.
“They treated me like I was a junkie,” she said. “I don’t know, last I knew drugs weren’t bright pink.”
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School superintendent Thomas Lamey said a four-day suspension for a third-grader was “not very common at all, but it depends on the student’s history.”
Cortes said her daughter has never before received a detention or suspension.
South Street Elementary School principal William Terrill did not return calls asking for his comments on the bust.
Puyallup schools ban Halloween festivities
School Says Halloween Disrespectful to Witches
There will be no dressing up and no tricking for treats in the Puyallup school district this year. They’ve decided to enforce a rule that’s been on the books for a few years. No Halloween celebrations will be allowed because it is offensive to witches.
Assistant Superintendent Tony Apostle advised Puyallup principals in a memo last week that Halloween costumes and parties are now banned. Pumpkins and cornstalks are fine, he said, but witches, black cats or “similar decorations that are intended to frighten or scare individuals” are not.
Halloween is a religious holiday for Wiccans, the memo noted, and its celebration in mainstream culture has generated unsavory images that might offend real-life witches.
“Building administrators should not tolerate such inappropriate stereotyping (images such as witches on flying brooms, stirring caldrons, casting spells, or with long noses and pointed hats),” Apostle’s memo states.
How do the Wiccans respond? It seems they don’t care. The caricature witch is an ingrained part of the commercial holiday and even if they don’t like it much they’re pretty resigned to it. Pete Davis, pastor of Aquarian Tabernacle Church thinks it’s a bit more nefarious than that. He sees it as a move of the religious right to get rid of a holiday with roots in paganism.
(Tip credits to David Newman, Robert Dudley and Jason Trommeter)
Teen Civil War Buff Busted For Having Musket In Trunk
Teen Suspended Over Civil War Weapon
Joshua Phelps answered his schools’ call to arms. He joined the Civil War Club after seeing posters in school encouraging student participation in the group. He spent the weekend fighting off the Rebs at a recreation of the battle of Chancellorsville. He never expected he’d be fighting a real life battle just days later.
The 17-year-old … was called down to the assistant principal’s office Tuesday, where he was told that a weapon had been spotted in his car.
Also found inside the vehicle during a search by school officials was a bayonet, rolled cartridges with black powder, and a Union soldier’s uniform.
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when Town of Crawford police showed up at the school 67 miles north of New York City, where they not only confiscated the musket, but handcuffed Phelps and charged him with misdemeanor criminal possession of a weapon, punishable by up to a year in jail.
Phelps, who was looking to expand his extracurricular activities to beef up his college applications, also was suspended from school for five days.
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8-Year-Old Suspended For Having Butter Knife In Lunch Bag
Boy returns to school after butter-knife suspension
The King William County zero tolerance policy was founded on the idea that all weapons are created equally. A butter knife is the same as a hunting knife is the same as a ninja sword is the same as a bayonet affixed to a loaded assault rifle. 8 year-old Nicholas Heath ran afoul of the policy when his mother packed him a lunch including bread, peanut butter, jelly and a butter knife to assemble his sandwich.
The Richmond Times-Dispatch reported that Nicholas, a third-grader, had been suspended for 10 days and faced the possibility of being placed in disciplinary classes for a year.
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[Joyce] Heath said she packed a butter knife in her son’s lunch along with a package of peanut butter and jelly on Oct. 1. She said Nicholas did not do anything threatening with the knife.
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Students Threatened With Expulsion Over ‘Grand Wizard’ Drawing
At the University of Massachusetts it is okay to call a soldier who was just slain in battle an idiot but satirizing a friend using a caricature of the KKK is strictly prohibited.
The caricature was drawn to mock the claim that Higgins was a “racist” because he opposed a plan that would have allotted a certain number of seats in the Student Senate for members of ALANA, which represents “African, Latino/a, Asian/Pacific Islander, and Native American” students at the university.
The drawing depicts the “Grand Wizard” wearing a pointed hat and a cape, holding a burning cross. The “Grand Wizard” was also cross-eyed, with its tongue hanging out and a bubble over its head containing the words “I LOVE ALANA.”
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