From a Gesture to an Assault Rifle
A couple of days ago, a 5-year-old girl was suspended from school after she supposedly made a terrorist threat. What was the threat? She told administrators that she wanted to shoot her friend…with a Hello Kitty bubble gun. She was suspended for 10 days and was ordered to undergo psychological evaluation. Unsurprisingly, she was found to be normal and her suspension was then graciously reduced to just two days.
This is how the secular humanistic school system works—you assume the worst in all people and then rigidly adhere to proper procedure regardless of how daft it is. Yes, subjecting a kindergartener to psychological evaluation over a remark about a bubble gun seems severe, but it’s better to be safe than sorry. Today, it’s a bubble gun; tomorrow, it could very well be a 9mm or assault rifle. School policy assumes that a remote possibility is not just possible, but likely. Moreover, in the name of equality, all scenarios deserve to be handled equally, regardless of age or circumstances. It’s ridiculous. These kinds of stories seem to crop up with startling regularity, too.
At the end of this past December, a seventh-grader in Pennsylvania was suspended and charged with disorderly conduct when he made a gun gesture at some students. Was he goofing around? Probably, but the article doesn’t really say much. Regardless, this kid was handed a criminal record just because schools are jumpy and more than a little drunk with authority in the aftermath of the Newtown Massacre. Ironically, this child is now potentially looking forward to a life of limited prospects and, who knows, maybe a life of crime.
Just this last week, a Baltimore-area school suspended two 6-year-old boys for playing cops and robbers at recess and using their fingers as guns. Amazingly, another 6-year-old boy in Montgomery county Maryland was suspended for using his finger as a gun and making gun noises repeatedly. Thankfully, his parents appealed and the school reversed its decision.
Then there was the case of Jarred Moomaw, a 5-year-old Oklahoman, who also was suspended a day and was even prevented from attending the school’s Christmas party for making a gun gesture.
You just never know when a child will graduate from a gesture to an assault rifle, so, in the name of equality, it’s best to treat them all like miscreants destined for the state penitentiary. Good job, public educators.
I was agreeing with you on the stupidity of the school’s overreaction, but you lost me when you brought secular humanism into it.
Humanism, an Enlightenment philosophy, defends the right of the individual and places free thought as an ideal to strive for. I don’t see much of that in this case, just mindless bureaucrats blindly following the letter, not the spirit, of a rule.
Welcome back, Josh! I’m glad you liked at least some to it. As I see it, it’s secular humanism that tends to lead to the creation of statism. For public officials, all individuals deserve to be treated the same, both in good times and bad. When egalitarianism is set as a laudable goal for all of humanity, then it should come as no surprise that we have inflexible procedure on top of rigid statute.
It wouldn’t be any fun if we only comment on posts we agree with.
I think the jump from humanism to statism is a non sequitur. Jefferson used this philosophy to limit government and fight monarchy and totalitarianism. Equality was paramount to him.
Stupidity comes in all shapes and sizes. If this happened in a Catholic school and I am certain I would be able to dig something up akin to this, I wouldn’t use it as an opportunity to attack Christianity.