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Texas Boy Suspended For "Threatening" Classmate With the One Ring
An anonymous reader writes Nine-year-old Aiden Steward has been suspended by officials at a Texas school after he allegedly threatened to use his magic ring to make another boy disappear. His father says the family had watched The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies last weekend. His son brought a ring to class and told another boy his magic ring could make the boy disappear. "I assure you my son lacks the magical powers necessary to threaten his friend's existence," Aiden's father wrote in an email. "If he did, I'm sure he'd bring him right back." Principal Roxanne Greer declined to comment on the school's zero tolerance policy on magic rings. It may seem easy to make fun of Principal Greer in this case, but it does make one wonder how many elves could have been saved if someone took a hard line with a young Sauron.
More like "zero intelligence" policy.
school is for learning and teaching.
Not this school
Two of the disciplinary actions this year were in-school suspensions for referring to a classmate as black and bringing his favorite book to school: "The Big Book of Knowledge."
“He loves that book. They were studying the solar system and he took it to school. He thought his teacher would be impressed,” Steward said.
But the teacher learned the popular children’s encyclopedia had a section on pregnancy, depicting a pregnant woman in an illustration, he explained.
Most kids who have younger siblings or friends who have younger siblings have seen a pregnant woman, so what is the big deal? Idiots teaching others how to be idiots by example.
"Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
... Another case that proves the old saying - "Zero Tolerance Policy" means "Zero Intelligence Policy"
the school is teaching the kid that threats have consequences.
Credible threats have consequences. Threatening to magically make someone magically vanish lacks credibility.
and a pretty good lesson
"Good" lessons have a point to them. Teaching kids to fear imaginary threats does not.
I thought you were joking. But that's really what he's been suspend for the previous two times.
That's insanity...
Never underestimate the bandwidth of a 747 filled with CD-ROMs.
I'm all for teaching kids that threats (and other mean things said) have consequences. As a father, I have to do this more often than I'd like. (Mostly from my boys getting on each others' nerves.) However, your response needs to be proportionate to the actual threat. If a child brings a gun to school and threatens another child with it - even if the gun was unloaded - suspension could definitely be considered. If a child is threatening another child with a "magic ring", though, perhaps you should just talk with the child about how it's not nice to threaten people even with imaginary objects. At most, have the child write an essay or something to drive the point home. However, a suspension over "my magic ring will make you invisible" is really going over the line.
My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
It's kind of mind-boggling, isn't it?
This tells me the principal at this school is quite possibly a complete fucking moron who is too stupid to hold this job.
For pretending he'd use his magic powers he gets suspended? Amazing.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
There is something seriously wrong with this principle. I do not know if is something that needs counseling, or psych-drugs, or whether she is mentally challenged, or merely power mad, and enjoys exerting it over little children, but no, childplay should never be punished like that. I don't think she should be allowed to be around children.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
the school is teaching the kid that threats have consequences.
Credible threats have consequences. Threatening to magically make someone magically vanish lacks credibility.
and a pretty good lesson
"Good" lessons have a point to them. Teaching kids to fear imaginary threats does not.
There is one good lesson they're teaching this boy: those with authority are not to be trusted.
It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education. - Einstein
It's part of the "teaching incompetence and government absurdity" in the classroom program. Best the kids learn early that rational thought and reason does not exist if the words threat, school, sex, gay, religion, race, and more are used in a sentence.
My God can beat up your God. Just kidding...don't take offense. I know there's no God.
Suspending a kid because he has a book that talks about pregnancy isn't much above the "unga bunga" stage when it comes to education.
There is no way I'd have a child in that school after THAT incident. None at all.
I personally lived in Texas and plan to move back one day. Outside of the cities it *is* heavily Christian, pro-death, pro-gun, road kill eating groups of people and they're proud of it. Heck I married a Texan, it doesn't mean the state isn't full of mouth breathers.
Principal Greer, please take your zero-tolerance and hyper-PC bullshit back to California.
Let me see if I understand this. Previously, he was suspended for mentioning that another kid was "black", which apparently is a violation of some idiot's "tolerance for others" policy. You can't have the kid being "intolerant", by being aware of ethnic differences. Next, he's suspended based on Greer's zero-tolerance policy. Zero-tolerance for uhm - pretending, apparently.
Nah, this is common all over the country now. Today's school system is way too much like washington dc, they don't want to be held accountable for anything, so they silence everything. They're also way too interested in pushing certain political viewpoints on the kids.
There is no excuse for this kind of idiocy. When something is obviously not a threat to then treat it like one shows that the principal is an idiot. She should have confiscated the ring and told the kid to go back to class and behave. Actually a teacher should have handled it. How it ever got to the level it did is mind boggling. I know this kind of behavior goes on all the time because kids are kids. Most teachers and principals would have handled this without all the fuss, this time it was an idiot. Unfortunately you can't filter them all out, sometimes a few get through. They should fire her immediately and replace her with someone with some sense.
Well, do you have anything to back that up, or is it just the wild-ass speculation it sounds like?
I would not be surprised if you were talking completely out of your ass with neither facts nor evidence to back it up. I might not even be surprised if you beat your wife and children. I might not be surprised if you killed and tortured animals.
In this case, "I would not be surprised" is code for "I''m going to make unfounded bullshit speculation and insinuate there is a basis for it other than I felt like making shit up".
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
I would take a certain pleasure in seeing a massive doxxing campaign against principals and other officials on state payrolls who make such stupid decisions and hide behind bad policy.
Agree the story sounds bizzare, but if an angry mob of mouth breathers is your idea of natural justice then I for one am glad you are not a public servant or an educator.
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
I love people who take pot shots and don't know what the fuck they're talking about. All school districts are taking tougher stances on punishment and more and more districts across the country are adopting zero tolerance policies. Is it draconian? yes, but when you have inattentive parents who don't take the time to explain right from wrong or turn a blind eye to the kids' activities this is what you get. This is clearly one that the schools administration could deal with but their hands are probably tied by district policy. Schools need to get back to the job of teaching and inspiring our youth, not being extensions of a detention system. That means that parents, you know the ones that actually bring these kids into the world, need to get involved with their kids and start by doing some teaching at home.
While I agree wholeheartedly with what you say there is another reason for such policies:
By mandating certain actions the school's administration is not required to make judgement calls that could be second guessed by the district or the courts. This way, they can fall back on the "district policy" argument to protect themselves. Before someone Goodwin's this thread with the "I was just following orders" argument with the current willingness of many parents to sue at the drop of a hat zero tolerance is a better defense than judgement call.
Yes, it leads to stupid results and is really a bad idea but until parents step up we'll see more and more of this.
I'm a consultant - I convert gibberish into cash-flow.
There is no excuse for this kind of idiocy. When something is obviously not a threat to then treat it like one shows that the principal is an idiot. She should have confiscated the ring and told the kid to go back to class and behave. Actually a teacher should have handled it. How it ever got to the level it did is mind boggling. I know this kind of behavior goes on all the time because kids are kids. Most teachers and principals would have handled this without all the fuss, this time it was an idiot. Unfortunately you can't filter them all out, sometimes a few get through. They should fire her immediately and replace her with someone with some sense.
Most teacher I know often handle this in class but once it gets noticed outside of class there is no longer a option of using common sense. If one kid gets a hand slap and another a more serious punishment then the school is open to a lawsuit; and if the kid escalates into more serious actions then the school and teacher are in trouble as well. Yes, this is a stupid case and I wish we didn't have these dumb zero tolerance positions but we do. It's easier on the administration of a school and politicians get to say they are taking a tough stance on XYZ and as a result stupid outcomes happen. Welcome to the new reality where judgement is bad and having punishments fit the circumstances is a distant memory.
I'm a consultant - I convert gibberish into cash-flow.
There is no excuse for this kind of idiocy. When something is obviously not a threat to then treat it like one shows that the principal is an idiot. She should have confiscated the ring and told the kid to go back to class and behave. Actually a teacher should have handled it. How it ever got to the level it did is mind boggling. I know this kind of behavior goes on all the time because kids are kids. Most teachers and principals would have handled this without all the fuss, this time it was an idiot. Unfortunately you can't filter them all out, sometimes a few get through. They should fire her immediately and replace her with someone with some sense.
Should you fire the person that is likely legally bound to make a very nonsensical call?
Or should you perhaps do the right thing instead, and call into question why yet again the threat of legal liability is turning humans into robots.
Tell me, at what point will the middle finger be considered not just grounds for expulsion, but an Act of Terrorism?
Don't laugh, we're well on our way, thanks to the wrong kind of thinking.
Let me give you a real world example to clarify the problems school administrators face. About 3 years ago a teenager girl going to the same high school as my kids was killed by someone she had accused of sexual assault. He was out on bail with a trial pending and she just started attending the high school the same week. The administrators didn't know the situation at all, nor did the local police dept. as all of this happened in another city. She was abducted on school grounds just after school had let out and he lured her by befriending her on social media. He shot her and she wound up in the river. Here's the whole story. http://www.dallasnews.com/news...
It's these kinds of incidents and the obvious outcry that creates zero tolerance policies. I agree that the administrator and teacher should have been given the alacrity to determine some other kind of punishment but I'll bet both would have been subject to disciplinary action had then not taken the action they did. It's stupid, it's dumb. Hell, have the shit I did when I was in school would have wound me up in jail by all this zero tolerance shit. My original point was that it's not just in Texas, this is all over the nation and it's getting worse. Schools now aren't places of learning, they're more akin to detention centers with lock down policies. Hell when I'd go to a school conference I'd have to give them my driver's license and they'd do a warrant check before I'd be allowed entry. I'd have to tell them "hey, you invited me here remember?"
Schools are a reflection of the communities they serve and until we start addressing the violence and problems outside the schools, they'll continue to have things like zero tolerance and lock down environments where a kid, fantasizing about sorcery gets suspended. It's stupid, dumb and disgusting but we've allowed this to happen. It's well that it happened in the US because in Saudi Arabia he'd have been beheaded for sorcery.
Harrison's Postulate - "For every action there is an equal and opposite criticism"
'violence problems' are a red herring.
all indications are that crime has GONE DOWN over the decades, not up!
and if you're worried about your little snowflake, chances are that its someone you know that may abduct him or her, not some 'stranger danger' guy.
stop being afraid of goddamned shadows. living in fear is no way to live. man up, dammit.
--
"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
Expelliarmus!
You know, I wondered if there could be more to this story, like the concern was not the actual threat so much at the intent behind it. (Like, it wasn't any concerns over the "magic" angle, but that the threat was rooted in an actual desire to cause harm. Then I read this in your comment:
...the disciplinary actions this year were in-school suspensions for... bringing his favorite book to school... depicting a pregnant woman in an illustration...
Yup, that tells me everything right there. They are nuts. Remind me never to go anywhere near this school system, ever.
If you read the article, the kid already has a suspension on file for daring to bring [The Big Book of Knowledge] to school.
Elementary school is no place for Knowledge, young man.
Best the kids learn early that rational thought and reason does not exist if the words threat, school, sex, gay, religion, race, and more are used in a sentence.
From TFA:
He's already been suspended three times this school year. Two of the disciplinary actions this year were in-school suspensions for referring to a classmate as black and bringing his favorite book to school: "The Big Book of Knowledge."
"He loves that book. They were studying the solar system and he took it to school. He thought his teacher would be impressed," Steward said.
But the teacher learned the popular children's encyclopedia had a section on pregnancy, depicting a pregnant woman in an illustration, he explained.
Knowledge. You know that shit can be dangerous in a classroom. We should probably suspend anyone who brings such educational porn in from the local bookstore...
It seems like now that actual violent crime is dropping we have to invent new problems. It's like a solution in search of a problem.