Atlas Hugged
An apparently true tale of overzealous idiotic school administrators (imagine!) putting an 8th-grade girl in middle-school Gitmo for the dread act of hugging a friend:
Two hugs equals two days of detention for 13-year-old Megan Coulter. The eighth-grader was punished for violating a school policy banning public displays of affection when she hugged two friends Friday.
"I feel it is crazy," said Megan, who was to serve her second detention Tuesday after classes at Mascoutah Middle School [in Illinois].
"I was just giving them a hug goodbye for the weekend," she said.
Megan's mother, Melissa Coulter, said the embraces weren't even real hugs—just an arm around the shoulder and slight squeeze.
"It's hilarious to the point of ridicule," Coulter said. "I'm still dumbfounded that she's having to do this."
I'd say that it's horrendous to the point of ridicule, but I'm heartened to see the girl is refusing to go gentle into that detention room, like some kind of teen John Galt (really bad headline allusion). Indeed, the girl and her mother were all over cable this morning, even pulling more camera time on Fox & Friends than Benazir Bhutto (imagine!).
I predict a minor uptick in downloads of The Wall in and around Illinois. Or at least a rash of dark sarcasm in the classroom. And am I the only who fears this will reverse years of "Hugs, not drugs" brainwashing?
Peter Bagge checks out insane school admins here.
Ron Bailey grades a dumb school's zero tolerance for silly pictures here.
A depressing look at Nanny State 911!
More reason stuff of zero tolerance.