Friday, February 1, 2013

Our Public School School System Is Broken - Part 1

The following stories make me wonder why this country has not risen up in anger and disgust and torn down our increasingly over-priced, ineffective, and dysfunctional public school system.

Boy, 6, suspended from school for pointing finger like a gun
The parents of a 6-year-old Silver Spring boy are fighting the first-grader’s suspension from a Montgomery County public school for pointing his finger like a gun...

The first-grader was suspended for one day, Dec. 21. The family’s attorney filed an appeal Wednesday, asking that the incident be expunged from the boy’s school record amid concerns of long-term fallout.

The boy “had no intention to shoot anyone,” said attorney Robin Ficker, who described the child as soft-spoken, with no propensity for violence. “He’s skinny and meek. In his words, he was playing.”
Kids have been pointing their fingers and going "Bang" for years without anyone getting shot. But today, in our over-reactive politically correct educational environment, all of a sudden pointing your finger is a terrorist act. Common sense is a thing of the past.

Hard as it is to believe, that kid got off easy. Another 6-year-old was not just suspended, but expelled from school for taking a plastic toy gun to show and tell.
"You can fire it as many times as you want, it won't come out" said 6-year-old Naomi McKinney. "It's duct taped because it's broken."

McKinney took her brother's air soft gun to school January 4th. The school kept it.

"It was broken and I just wanted to show my friends it" McKinney said.

"I told Ms. Frye that I had the gun and she took it from my hand," said McKinney. McKinney was taken to the office and police were called.
POLICE!?!? For a toy plastic gun? A broken, duct-taped toy plastic gun? Someone needs to use a little judgment.
District policy says it will expel any student who brings a weapon to school. A weapon means a firearm.
A weapon -- a firearm -- is Not repeat NOT the same thing as a broken, duct-taped plastic toy gun.

Things have gotten so bad that the parents are apologizing -- sort of -- for the incident.
Her father, Hank McKinney, admits some fault.

"I'll take some of the responsibility because I never had that talk with her," he said.  "We don't check her. I didn't check her bag that morning."
Has it really come to this? Parents apologizing because they don't frisk their 6-year-old daughters every morning before they go to school?

GMAFB!

And if those two stories aren't enough to drive you to drink, here's one that's guaranteed to send you running for the liquor cabinet.

Colorado HS Students Pledge Allegiance to the Flag … in Arabic
A Fort Collins high school principal is defending his decision to allow students from a cultural club to recite the Pledge of Allegiance in Arabic...

The school recites the Pledge of Allegiance once a week [Once a week? How patriotic of them.] and on Monday a member of the Cultural Arms Club led the student body in the Arabic version of the pledge.
“one nation under Allah...”

What's next? The Star Spangled Banner played on a qanun?


Sigh...

5 comments:

Bag Blog said...

It's those crazy elementary teachers. They freak over everything. By the time the kids get to high school, they can cuss, point their finger like a gun, spit, and do worst things to a teacher and no one will do anything for fear of lawsuits.

Old NFO said...

It's MD, they are on a witch hunt all day every day!

CenTexTim said...

BB - It's not just the K-6 teachers. Almost everyone today overreacts, and lawyers are a big reason for it.

NFO - the first story is from MD. The other two are from SC and CO. The nonsense is everywhere - and growing.

Toejam said...

It's growing alright CTT.

Even States that I would have though had a pair are caving into this PC bullshit.

But the pendulum swings both ways and hopefully Americans will see a day when the word "pussy" will only be applied to a part of the female anatomy.

CenTexTim said...

Toejam, I hope and pray that you're right about the pendulum.