School Vouchers, please. Now. Thank you.
This sort of nonsense makes you sputter:
An athletic and academic standout in Lee County said a lunchbox mix-up has cut short her senior year of high school and might hurt her college opportunities.
Ashley Smithwick, 17, of Sanford, was suspended from Southern Lee High School in October after school personnel found a small paring knife in her lunchbox .
Smithwick said personnel found the knife while searching the belongings of several students, possibly looking for drugs.
The lunchbox really belonged to Joe Smithwick, who packs a paring knife to slice his apple. He and his daughter have matching lunchboxes.
The “chief school resource officer” for the school says she “couldn’t comment on the case,” adding “shut up and raise my pay.” Okay, I added that last part. At first the school suspended her for ten days, then thought long and deep on the matter and banned her for the rest of the school year. This month she was charged with weapons possession. Excellent work, folks. You avoided a Columbine-style mass-paring with your quick thinking, and a grateful city is forever in your debt. Mostly because of your pension obligations, but for this, too.
Related: You may have heard of the kids in Virginia who were punished for handing out candy canes. One was allegedly told by an administrator that “candy canes are weapons because you can sharpen them with your mouth and stab people with them." But here's the best quote of all from a pinch-faced ubergrinch in the head office:
Mother Kathleen Flannery said an administrator called her and explained "not everyone wants Christmas cheer. That suicide rates are up over Christmas, and that they should keep their cheer to themselves, perhaps."
I’m surprised the administrator didn’t praise the upticks in suicide, since it would decrease the surplus population. (Pre-conversion Scrooge, with his stingy use of coal and concerns over population, really was something of a proto-Green.)
Administrators: the sand in the gears of the educational system, and just as numberless. In my high school we had a principal, a vice-principal, a “counselor” for each grade, and two nice office ladies. Now we have a “chief school resource officer,” which implies the existence of lesser school resource officers. You could eliminate 90% of the administrators, leave the office ladies alone, and no one would notice anything had changed. Except for the number of Starbucks employees who insisted on being called "chief bean pulverization officer."
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Jul '10
Re: School Vouchers, please. Now. Thank you.
“When the principals conduct their investigations, what typically is fleshed out is the true intent,” he told the newspaper. “Bottom line is we want to ensure every child feels safe on our campus."
And the true intent, a knife for Her Father to slice an apple, got Her expelled. My goodness, what would have happened to Her if it was Her knife?
Again, they're not schools, but prisons.
Re: School Vouchers, please. Now. Thank you.
Someone should send this piece to Janet Napolitano. These people need to be hired by the Transportation Security Administration. They obviously need no further training.
Edited on Dec 29, 2010 at 3:19pmJul '10
Re: School Vouchers, please. Now. Thank you.
And "I[i]n my high school we had a principal, a vice-principal, a 'counselor' for each grade, and two nice office ladies....." and Vending Machines with candy and Cokes.
May '10
Re: School Vouchers, please. Now. Thank you.
OK Ricochetians, here's your challenge. Given the infinite combination of possibilities, and the complete lack of ability of our individuals in our culture to make reasoned adult judgments, where on the continuum of a photo of a paring knife and a nuclear weapon do you draw a bright line separation between what kids can and cannot bring to school?
Nowhere, that's the problem and that's why we have the idiocy of zero-tolerance expulsions of a kindergartner for pointing his finger and saying "pow, you're dead."
Sep '10
Re: School Vouchers, please. Now. Thank you.
Sadly, this kind of thing is neither new nor isolated.
http://www.thisistrue.com/zt.html
It falls to each of us to take up the cause as it arises in our own communities. These school bullies will back down if they get some heat.
Sep '10
Re: School Vouchers, please. Now. Thank you.
Nick Stuart: OK Ricochetians, here's your challenge. Given the infinite combination of possibilities, and the complete lack of ability of our individuals in our culture to make reasoned adult judgments, where on the continuum of a photo of a paring knife and a nuclear weapon do you draw a bright line separation between what kids can and cannot bring to school?
....
How about defining a weapon as something that can cause more harm than a closed fist or a swift kick. All children possess those weapons in school every day, at least for the present. Students using them are dealt with after they cause harm, not preemptively.
Perhaps the problem is that school officials seek to abdicate their own responsibility to provide a safe environment, relying instead on arbitrary rules. Penknives and other 'weapons' have existed for a long time with no obvious significant harm in many schools. What is new now?
Nov '10
Re: School Vouchers, please. Now. Thank you.
The relentless campaign to eradicate Christianity from America continues apace.
In other posts, I have noted that politics tends to attract the worst kinds of human beings. And rent-seeking teachers and administrators are nothing if not political animals. It is no exaggeration to say that the public school system is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Democratic Party. So it is no surprise that our children wind up being tormented and tyrannized by such wretched pieces of humanity — stupid and ignorant, with an almost sub-human lack of judgement, decency and common sense.
Edited on Dec 29, 2010 at 4:27pmJul '10
Re: School Vouchers, please. Now. Thank you.
The more I think about it, the more ticked I get.
For any government agency to impose "zero tolerance" diktats on American Citizens is abject tyranny.
We should begin a "zero tolerance" campaign against the federal government for a failing educational system.
Re: School Vouchers, please. Now. Thank you.
“Bottom line is we want to ensure every child feels safe on our campus.”
This is perfect. Why do we have the TSA? To make us safe? No, to make us feel safe. Everything is a performance designed to have an effect. Everything is manipulation, and if you see through it and object to the charade, God help you.
I say it again. Janet Napolitano needs to hire these people. They would fit in perfectly.
Jul '10
Re: School Vouchers, please. Now. Thank you.
Actually, in my high school it was just a soda machine, and it didn't work after being vandalized by the principal's son (not a student at the school) to try to score a free soda. He failed. I swear that public schools are an incredible tool for teaching children the importance of limited government, and the limitations of the governmental capacity to achieve intended ends while pathologically spewing unintended consequences.
Ask Joe the plumber.
Jun '10
Re: School Vouchers, please. Now. Thank you.
When was the last time you heard of a high school student going on a violent rampage with a paring knife? I suspect the answer is "never." A paring knife is a highly ineffective weapon, but very efficiently removes the peel from an apple.
I had an old boss whose favorite phrase was "the rules are for when the brains run out." This is a good example of the administrative state gone mad.
Jul '10
Re: School Vouchers, please. Now. Thank you.
Jimmy Carter: The more I think about it, the more ticked I get.
For any government agency to impose "zero tolerance" diktats on American Citizens is abject tyranny.
We should begin a "zero tolerance" campaign against the federal government for a failing educational system. · Dec 29 at 3:51pm
You have repeated a terrible, tragic mistake from which we may never recover, thank you Jimmy Carter, the federal government is not and should not be responsible for any part of the education market. The Education Department has more than doubled the administrators required per school and improved general responsiveness to PC edicts from Washington.
And Jimmy Carter walks the Earth a free man.
Aug '10
Re: School Vouchers, please. Now. Thank you.
Lady K rocks ! What do the NEA and the Nazi Party have in common ? How about the NEA and the Mafia ?
May '10
Re: School Vouchers, please. Now. Thank you.
James, I'm with you, totally, on the tear-your-hair-out, Alice-in-Wonderland asininity on display in this story.
We need far few policies and bureaucratic procedure and much more human judgment in schools and civic life generally.
But I balk a bit at your proposed solution. I used to be absolutely gung-ho for vouchers. Now I hesitate for a reason I can summarize in a word: Madrases.
Is there an answer to that? I'd love to know it.
Jul '10
Re: School Vouchers, please. Now. Thank you.
tabula rasa: When was the last time you heard of a high school student going on a violent rampage with a paring knife? I suspect the answer is "never." A paring knife is a highly ineffective weapon, but very efficiently removes the peel from an apple.
I had an old boss whose favorite phrase was "the rules are for when the brains run out." This is a good example of the administrative state gone mad. · Dec 29 at 4:20pm
A determined attacker can make very good use of paring knives, razor point pens, sharpened pencils (no.1 double plus good), box cutters, a leather belts, shoe laces, 1+ mil plastic bags, and just about any metal or hard plastic silverware. Then there is the demonstration in the Eiger Sanction on the uses for a tightly rolled magazine. Nevertheless, the administrators are deep fried dodoes. Not being a small child, when physically attacked I would cheerfully throw desks across the room to good effect, or use them as clubs in closer quarters.
If you want to eliminate any possibility of an object being used as a weapon, pad the walls and break out the straight jackets.
May '10
Re: School Vouchers, please. Now. Thank you.
Lileks: "Now we have a “chief school resource officer,” which implies the existence of lesser school resource officers. You could eliminate 90% of the administrators, leave the office ladies alone, and no one would notice anything had changed."
This hilites the biggest fallacy in the 'discussion' about education budgets. We could eliminate a large portion of the budget and no one would notice, if as Lileks points out, we just eliminated the bloated administration overhead...
Jimmy Carter: "And "I[i]n my high school we had a principal, a vice-principal, a 'counselor' for each grade, and two nice office ladies....." and Vending Machines with candy and Cokes."
And look what happened...you are scribing your fascist thought-crime on a conservative website. Obviously when you were in school you didn't have a Chief Resource Officer to make you 'feel' safe, and thus are now on the wrong path....
Edited on Dec 29, 2010 at 5:22pmJun '10
Re: School Vouchers, please. Now. Thank you.
Sisyphus
tabula rasa: When was the last time you heard of a high school student going on a violent rampage with a paring knife? I suspect the answer is "never." A paring knife is a highly ineffective weapon, but very efficiently removes the peel from an apple.
I had an old boss whose favorite phrase was "the rules are for when the brains run out." This is a good example of the administrative state gone mad. · Dec 29 at 4:20pm
A determined attacker can make very good use of paring knives, razor point pens, sharpened pencils (no.1 double plus good), box cutters, a leather belts, shoe laces,
Sisyphus: You're obviously correct in observing that in the hands of determined attacker nearly anything (including a paring knife) is a dangerous weapon. Not as good as a firearm, but for a determined nut, it could wreak some havoc. On reflection, I think my real point is that a paring knife is unlikely to be used by a serious nut and especially not an academic/sports star. You're absolutely right that we cannot assure a completely risk free world for our kids.
Sep '10
Re: School Vouchers, please. Now. Thank you.
When I was in high school I remember having a teacher who was trying to open a large box that had come in the mail. He asked the class, "Who here is Italian?" Several hands went up. The teacher then pointed to one of the boys who had raised his hand and said, "Let me borrow your knife." The kid then gave his pocketknife to the teacher who then opened the box and then gave the Italian kid his knife back.
At the time I thought it was funny because all of the Italian kids in that class were carrying knives (even the girls). But if that happened today, the pocketknife packing students would have been expelled and the teacher would have been suspended* for life for making racially insensitive comments.
* with full pay and benefits of course
May '10
Re: School Vouchers, please. Now. Thank you.
James Lileks:
You could eliminate 90% of the administrators, leave the office ladies alone, and no one would notice anything had changed.
John Bolton said something very similar about the United Nations.
Edited on Dec 29, 2010 at 6:32pmNov '10
Re: School Vouchers, please. Now. Thank you.
Thank you, flownover. The NEA is definitely a racket, so it has more in common with the Mafia, I believe. In fact, since the NEA is the largest labor union in the United States, it may actually eclipse the Mafia in its ability to extort funds from the public treasury. Your typical school administrator is a grasping, degenerate thug with a depraved socialist philosophy.
Tell me again why we entrust these people with our children's welfare and education?