Zero Sanity

I recently read that a 12-year-old seventh grader in Sugar Land, Tex. was charged with a third-degree felony. Apparently, back in February, he wrote some bad words on his desk at school. The school's police decided to make a report and turned it over to the district attorney's office. Once the D.A. took over, he filed the felony for writing “gang graffiti”.

When asked what happened after they found the graffiti, The boy’s mother replied “they wiped it off with cleaning fluid”.

Now I know there are reasons why schools have a policy of “zero tolerance”, but come on. Who among us hasn’t written stuff on our desks?

This led me to find other cases of stupidity that there have been.

I came across a website called zerointelligence.com. In this site, I found a database of these stories. Some are so far-fetched that you’d never believe them. For example, in Rio Rancho, N. Mex., a 13-year-old middle school student was suspended for five days for having heartburn-relief medicine in his possession. (read the article – here)

It was the over-the-counter medicine “Gas-Ex”. Apparently, Rio Rancho is the one with the gas. After reviewing their ruling, the Rio Rancho Board of Education upheld the decision to suspend the boy for “personal substance abuse”.

The only one abused here is the kid.

And then there’s the story that came out in Lawrence, N.J. (read story here – requires registration)

In this idyllic community near Princeton, the school decided to limit bathroom breaks to 15 a month. In order to enforce this policy, they are locking the bathroom doors between classes.

However, under attack from a few parents and the students, the school board has recently revised this rule. It announced that the students can now have 30 potty breaks a month. It’s a good thing, too, being that there are usually 22-23 school days in an average month. But I wonder, can you save them up and roll over the unused passes for the next month? What happens if a kid has a stomach disorder or a urinary track infection and has to go, like every 15 minutes? Or for girls who have that “not so fresh feeling”? Maybe that’s why Rio Rancho won’t let the kid have the Gas-Ex. If he took it, it would make him go to the bathroom!

When did we become inundated with all of these asinine rules of “zero tolerance”? I speculate it probably stemmed from the Columbine tragedy. But the lesson we should have learned from that horrible event was not that kids are abusing potty breaks or writing on their desks or even bringing G.I. Joe toys to school. It’s that we should be more involved in our kids lives and help them deal with the pressures of adolescence.

Unfortunately in our generation, our children are being raised with the false vision of the liberal left. Today’s child is taught by those who rebelled against the “establishment” in the ‘60s. While living in the White House, First Lady Hillary Clinton wrote a book called, “It Takes A Village”. The premise is that a child is raised by a whole community. This is a ‘60s radical thinking. It was the utopian society the “Flower Children” dreamed up. The problem is that utopia is not real. While there were (and are) some good things that came out from that generation, the most we got out of it was that “it takes a village”. It’s the fault of “no one” and “no one” is to blame. If you get a bad grade at school, there is no recrimination. In Nashville, they’ve already done away with the “Dean’s List”. Let’s do away with grades altogether! Just as long as we don’t make him feel bad. It doesn’t take a village. It takes a parent.

Unless he has to go to the bathroom.