A 7-year-old boy at a Loveland, Colorado elementary school was suspended yesterday for throwing an imaginary grenade. The boy didn’t actually have a mock weapon in his possession, nor did he physically throw anything at all as a grenade substitute. He simply pretended to throw a weapon as part of an imaginary game he was playing. You know—in his mind.
The suspension was issued because the boy violated one of the school’s “absolute” rules, which simply states: “no weapons (real or play)”. Clearly the school is taking a fair bit of liberty with the definition of a “play” weapon, ruling that this includes anything dangerous that kids might happen to think about.
From the Mary Blair Elementary School website: a zero-tolerance policy on imaginary weapons.
This is only the most recent example of a ludicrous elementary school suspension made by officials that have completely lost their grasp on reality. In the wake of school shootings, common sense is increasingly being pushed out of America’s schools in favor of “security at absolutely any cost—even if the security isn’t real (never mind necessary)” policies.
Some other examples of elementary school suspensions in the name of safety, all occurring within the last several weeks:
Came across the following video today and thought I would share. Apparently the school where these interviews took place is located in Olympia, Washington—which makes the responses to the first question especially painful.
Yesterday, the Indiana State Senate passed a bill that allows the teaching of various religions’ origin stories in public school science classes, alongside the scientific theory of evolution.
Senator Dennis Kruse, the bill’s sponsor, has made it clear that his goal with the bill is to encourage the teaching of creationism in science classrooms. Kruse has expressed contempt for evolution, calling it a “Johnny-come-lately” theory.
While the original text of Kruse’s bill specifically mentioned “creation science” (a term banned by the Supreme Court in the 1987 Edwards v. Aguillard case), the bill was later re-written to encompass a variety of religions—including Scientology. Kruse has stated that he is aware that his bill violates the precedent set in the Edwards case and will likely be challenged if it becomes a law. He pointed out that “this is a different Supreme Court” than the one we had in 1987, and he believes that they “could rule differently.”
An example math problem from the homework read: “If Frederick got two beatings per day, how many beatings did he get in one week?” Another question stated: “Each tree had 56 oranges. If eight slaves pick them equally, then how much would each slave pick?”
In a surprise to exactly nobody, parents were outraged when they discovered the assignment.
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