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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.
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.
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.
'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.
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