The lunatics have taken over the asylum

An earlier post touched on the increasing militarisation of the American school system by way of armed police, in full riot gear and with weapons drawn, raiding junior and high schools – not to combat a specific threat, but as part of an 'exercise'. This lunacy is only the tip of the iceberg that is crammed full of examples not only of a big brother approach to the administration of education but also the crass and frankly insane results of a dogged adherence to the schizophrenic and destructive world of political correctness.

Suspended from class – for making an 'origami' gun

The student code of conduct of the Desoto Independent School District clearly states that no weapons or replica of weapons are allowed on school campus. That's fair enough – no argument there. However, where there is a rule like this there will always be some bozo who insists on taking it too literally, making a mockery of the rule itself and the school system enforcing that rule.

Destiny Thomas, an 11 year-old student at Amber Terrace Intermediate School in the Desoto School District, folded a piece of paper into the shape of a gun. You may be tempted to think that there is nothing remarkable in that and back in the sane world you would be right. However, in a bizarre application of the student code of conduct, the creator of this origami gun and two of her classmates were suspended and sentenced to 30 days of alternative school for 'flagrant violation of district anti-gun policies'.

Having reviewed the case on the following day, officials of the school district revoked the punishment and all three students will be allowed to return to class. What should be of concern is that the punishment was ever meted out in the first place.

[Source: Zero Intelligence]

Teacher's aide sexually harassed – by a four year old child

The detail of the story varies depending on who you listen to, but the official lunacy it represents does not alter that much. According to the child's father, his four-year-old child did nothing more than to hug his teachers aide. As a punishment for this offence the child was put into in-school suspension.

According the La Vega school administrators, the four-year-old was in a queue to get on the bus after school, when he was accused of rubbing his face in the chest of a female employee. The principal of the school sent a letter to the parents claiming that the child had demonstrated "inappropriate physical behaviour interpreted as sexual contact and/or sexual harassment."

The parents wrote to the school administrators demanding that the whole incident be erased from his son's academic file because his son is too young to know what it means to act sexually. The school agreed that sexual references on the discipline referral would be removed, but denied his request for an apology by the aide and removal of all paperwork regarding the incident.

[Source: KXXV TV]

Yet more kindergarten sexual harassment

Washington County school officials in Maryland told a parent that his son had pinched a girl's buttocks while in a hallway at Lincolnshire Elementary School, and that this meets the state's definition of sexual harassment. According to school officials, the incident will remain on record in the boy's file until he reaches middle school. A local newspaper, the Hagerstown Herald-Mail, reported that 28 kindergarten students in Maryland were suspended for sex offences in one school year, 15 of those suspensions being for sexual harassment.

[Source: AP/KUTV]

Taser abuse

While the tasering of UCLA student Mostafa Tabatabainejad gained worldwide attention and a great deal of criticism, other stories of the abuse of this potentially lethal weapon have flown well and truly under the radar. In May 2004, police were received a call to deal with a runaway from the Arizona Children's Home, a school for children with special needs. While dealing with the runaway, a veteran South Tucson police sergeant is alleged to have fired his taser to subdue a handcuffed 9-year-old girl.

The article cited below claims the weapon is non-lethal, but there is a growing body of evidence to the contrary. Whether or not the weapon is lethal is immaterial – we should be asking ourselves what sort of society would accept the use of such weapons against young children, handcuffed or not.

[Source: KMSB-TV]

School rules... even when you are at home

In some states, the pertinence of school rules and policy extends beyond the boundaries of the school and outside of school hours, as a student from an out-of-district school who was caught streaking at a Valparaiso High School football game found out when his school punished him for his actions. According to Dana Long, assistant director for legal services at the Indiana Department of Education, “Indiana law allows a school corporation to punish a student in violation of a school policy anywhere at any time”. Even if the student is not charged with any crime, schools are allowed to punish any "unlawful activity off school property that can reasonably be viewed as an interference with school purposes," according to Dave Emmert, general counsel for the Indiana School Board Association.

Although the wisdom of this student's decision to streak at a football game (or anywhere else for that matter) is open to question, the wisdom of allowing any school to direct the actions of their students outside of school premises and outside of school hours is far more questionable and the consequences far more intolerable.

[Source: Northwest Indiana Times]

Conclusion

These are but a few stories among a myriad that paint a distressing picture, not only of an educational system permanently at war with those it purports to serve, but of a nation in the throes of self-destruction. The education system, which plays an enormous part in shaping the society of the future, is beset not only by the overt militarism, religious dogmatism and faux patriotism of those on the right but also the morally vacuous and repugnant notions of political correctness peddled by those on the left.

The victims in this equation are, as ever, the children. Children who grow up with an unhealthy fear of authority instead of a healthy disrespect for authority. Children who are taught their purpose is to serve the state when in fact the reverse should be the case. Children who learn by example that displays of affection are deemed sexual harassment. Children who at a very early age are being deprived of their childhood by being introduced to sexual education. Children, who through diversity education are being propagandised into accepting single-sex relationships as the norm – when they are still very much the exception.

Note that I am not really interested in debating the pros and cons of gay marriage. There's simply too much else going on in the world that is of far higher importance. What I do object to is that children are not being afforded the courtesy of allowing them to grow up to discover the complexity of human sexuality for themselves at an appropriate age and only then to make up their own minds as to what they find acceptable.