June 21, 2010, - 11:49 am
Zero Tolerance for This Kind of Zero Tolerance
I have mixed feelings on zero tolerance policies in schools. When it comes to zero tolerance for drugs, weapons, and violence, I say, throw the bums out.
8-Yr-Old David Morales Learns the Meaning of Zero Tolerance Ad Absurdum
But then there are stupid, politically correct administrators who don’t understand the purpose and meaning of zero tolerance policies and take them to absurd levels. That’s been the case with kids who have aspirin or medication they must take, kids who’ve worn pro-American, patriotic clothing and gear, etc. But this latest example of “zero tolerance” ad absurdum really takes the cake.
Eight-year-old David Morales of Providence, Rhode Island is certainly learning early in life that far too many Americans don’t support our troops and will use school administrative laws to silence him and violate his First Amendment rights. Is there a sane person in this world who truly believes that toy soldiers on a hat violates a zero tolerance policy against weapons in schools?
Christan Morales said her son just wanted to honor American troops when he wore a hat to school decorated with an American flag and small plastic Army figures.
But the school banned the hat because it ran afoul of the district’s zero-tolerance weapons policy. Why? The toy soldiers were carrying tiny guns.
“His teacher called and said it wasn’t appropriate,’’ Morales said.
Morales’s son, David, 8, had been assigned to make a hat for the day when his second-grade class would meet their pen pals from another school. She and her son came up with an idea to add patriotic decorations to a camouflage hat.
Earlier this week, after the hat was banned, the principal at the Tiogue School in Coventry told the family that the hat would be fine if David replaced the Army men holding weapons with ones that did not have any, according to Superintendent Kenneth R. Di Pietro.
But, Morales said, the family had only one Army figure without a weapon (he was carrying binoculars), so David wore a plain baseball cap on the day of the pen pal meeting.
“Nothing was being done to limit patriotism, creativity, other than find an alternative to a weapon,’’ Di Pietro said.
The district does not allow images of weapons or drugs on clothing.
Huh? That means a student with a t-shirt depicting this Civil War battle, below, would be sent home. I guess students at Morales’ school have to pretend they fought that war with words, not weapons.
This Civil War Battle Scene Outlawed By Coventry Schools
They are called the Armed Forces for a fairly obvious reason: they’re armed.
I wonder how the Tiogue School and the Coventry school district do in standardized tests, high school graduation rates, and the percentage of students admitted into and attending college. I’d bet it’s comparatively low.
Any school and its administrators who waste that much time and effort worrying about toy soldiers with guns on a hat can’t possibly be doing an adequate job with reading, writing, and arithmetic.
Throw those bums out, too. So glad these “edyookayters” have their priorities straight.
Tags: Christian Morales, Coventry, David Morales, guns, hat, Kenneth R. Di Pietro, patriotic, Patriotism, Providence, Rhode Island, superintendent, Tiogue School, toy soldiers, zero tolerance
They should also ban the star and crescent. That symbol foments more violence than anything these kids could create.
Jarhead on June 21, 2010 at 12:30 pm