Further Adventures in Zero Tolerance

So many things wrong with this story:

An athletic and academic standout in Lee County said a lunchbox mix-up has cut short her senior year of high school and might hurt her college opportunities.

Ashley Smithwick, 17, of Sanford, was suspended from Southern Lee High School in October after school personnel found a small paring knife in her lunchbox.

Smithwick said personnel found the knife while searching the belongings of several students, possibly looking for drugs…

The lunchbox really belonged to Joe Smithwick, who packs a paring knife to slice his apple. He and his daughter have matching lunchboxes.

"It's just an honest mistake. That was supposed to be my lunch because it was a whole apple," he said.

Ashley Smithwick said she had never gotten in trouble before and was surprised when the principal opened her lunchbox and found the knife.

The teen was initially given a 10-day suspension, then received notice that she was suspended the rest of the school year…

This month, Ashley Smithwick, a soccer player who takes college-level courses, was charged with misdemeanor possession of a weapon on school grounds. She is no longer allowed to set foot on campus.

Comments

[scott clark]

Balkoooooo, damn it. F-cking groin kick.

[ph]

The act of sending your child to public school becomes more and more irresponsible every year.

[Prohibition Kills]

Karma would dictate these "administrators" should die a slow and painful death.

[wylie]

They're school admins....I think a slow and painful death is part of the job description.

[juris imprudent]

Just for that I'll give you a bonus ballkick...

6 retired educators in county are paid more than U.S. education secretary

I should be enduring such a painful retirement!

[Prohibition Kills]

Suffocation from having your head buried in the sand.

[Prohibition Kills]

your head = their head

[wylie]

Really, I was just referring to putting up with other peoples brats till you eventually hang yourself in the gymnasium, but I like your heads-in-sand take on it.

[Andrew S.]

Wait, wait, wait. They're allowed to do random searches for drugs now? Really?

My wife and I discussed our daughter's future education a few days ago (she's only 20 months, but still). Both of us agreed that there's no way she's going into the public school system. We'll find a way to afford private school.

[Pro Libertate]

It's like college tuition expensive. At least to send them to a decent private school. My law school cost less than some of the private K-12 institutions locally. My private law school.

[Andrew S.]

Luckily for me, when I've looked in the past, it's been slightly less than what my private law school tuition cost -- but not by much. Who knows what it's going to cost by the time she's old enough though.

Now in a place like NYC or DC? There, it's scary.

[califronian]

Not true, not even in an expensive area like the Bay Area. Most of the list prices are often discounted by as much as 50%. Many of the private schools give discounts to over half the student population.

Of the several people I know sending kids to private school in the Bay Area, none of them spend more than 12k a year.

[Nick]

I spend nearly 12k a year on my 3.5 year old's daycare. But I moved to a town with a very good public school since I knew I'd be paying taxes to support it anyway. I will be checking on the zero tolerance policy now though, so I can go to a bunch of meetings and cause shit if they have such a policy. Gotta cause a stink before she goes there.

[Pro Libertate]

It's not "not true." My last year, I spent $15,000 on tuition (that was after two pretty big hikes, so my average was closer to $12K, and that also disregards my law review editor scholarship, which wasn't available to most other students).

Granted, that was 15 years ago, but my statement stands. I know people who are pretty firmly middle class, who are paying full or nearly full tuition at private schools to the tune of $10-12K. And, of course, there are schools that go even higher. This is in relatively inexpensive Tampa, I might add.

We briefly had a child at a cheaper private school, which ran only about $500/month. I decided that having my kid taught Creationism as science went against my principles more than putting him back in public school. So yanked he was.

Private schools are not really what they would be if we had a free market in education. Not even close. Most of them are parochial and/or aimed at the wealthy and exist alongside the public school system. Which, of course, serves to poison the well for all students, since standards are based on public school metrics, from what I can see. It also dampens the opportunity to create a competitive market in teaching.

My wife did some homeschooling, and it seems to work perfectly fine. Given the average quality of teachers, an educated parent can, on average, produce a superior teaching experience and environment. If they have the time to do so, of course.

[Chupacabra]

I know at least 5 couples in the Bay Area who spend at least $30K a year for private school.

[hmm]

I don't have kids. But I will sell $5 blowjobs on the corner if I have to in order to make sure my niece goes to private schools.

[woot]

sounds like a bargain!

[Clancy]

Only because you are unaware of hmm's technique issues.

[sarcasmic]

You've never had a hummer?

[don't you mean]

a hmmer?

[Spazmo]

I prefer "hammer".

[juris imprudent]

Careful, sounds like you might be crossing over into Warty's turf there.

[Jim]

Starchild, is that you?

[Caroline]

Hahahahahaha!

[JimBob]

I was just thinking the same thing about my niece. She lives in Pennsylvania, which is a lot better than where I went to school (Florida), but I'd still be happy to mortgage my house and give BJs on the corner to keep her out of the public school system.

[Lost_In_Translation]

The government would prefer you do so so they can take your money and not have to deal with your children. That's what they call a win-win

[Mr. FIFY]

AND they STILL get your tax money, even if you don't send your kid to public school. Huge win for the state!

[Mr. FIFY]

Oops, that's what you said. Not enough coffee.

[Name Nomad]

You might also want to look into "unschooling" if either you or your wife work from/stay at home and can look after your kid most of the day.

[CrackertyAssCracker]

Homeschool. At least until they are 8 or so. If they are 8 and can read well and add you have pretty much gotten met the standard. Anything else on top of that is gravy. Plus they won't hate learning.

[CrackertyAssCracker]

Obviously you have to send them to school to learn proofreading skills though.

[wylie]

I was under the impression that proofreading skills were hereditary.

[ClubMedSux]

I agree that public schools are fucked up, but am confused as to why folks think private schools are any better. Granted public schools ignore your child's rights, but your child doesn't even HAVE those rights in a private school.

[Kristen]

Because with private schools you can choose one whose philosophy/morals/teaching style you agree with. If you don't like their privacy policies, move on to the next brochure.

[Tom]

ClubMed's oversight is the same reason most people reject capitalism; they don't understand that they have options when businesses/schools are competing for customers/students.

[ClubMedSux]

But it's not an oversight... Private schools ARE the other option to public schools (and further, in places like Chicago you may have several public school options to choose from with magnet schools, classical schools, gifted schools and charter schools); your comment would only be valid if I were promoting a ban on private schools.

I'm not talking about whether public schools should exist, nor am I doubting that in many situations private schools are a better option than public schools. All I'm saying is that if one's basis for choosing a school is whether or not their child will encounter irrational policies like zero tolerance, sending your kid to a private school won't necessarily protect you from said policies.

[CrackertyAssCracker]

It won't necessarily come with "protection from stupid +4". You are right. But in all probability, it actually will.

[poguemahoney]

There aren't enough public schoos to make it a real option for most people.

[Sleeping Dog]

A private school doesn't have the legal/political clout to do whatever it damn well fucking pleases to kids in order to enforce whatever "for the children" bullshit policy they've pulled out of their asses!

The rights a child in a private school has IS THE RIGHTS OF A PAYING CUSTOMER IN A BUSINESS and both parties treat each other as such! If the private school can't handle a student then they have the right to terminate the transaction while students can walk away at anytime if they feel the institution isn't up to their standards!

And since private schools aren't entrenched into the political establishment, parents can take legal action against the school and can expect actual reforms to result instead of a "sorry that your little girl was Coach Chile D. Molestor's 100th victim so here's a million dollars for you to go away so we can quietly transfer him to finish out his career since he has powerful union buddies!"

It's like the difference between a school cafeteria and McDonald's: The lunch lady makes it one way and one way only (shit-tastic) so you better sit down, shut the fuck up and like it because we KNOW better than you while old Ronald McDonald may not make the best food but at least he lets you pick your poisons, doesn't judged you, and won't have the Hamburglar give you a full cavity search in front of everybody because HE accidentally gave you a plastic knife!

...not too mention that the jail bait behind the counter at McDonald's is usually WAY more fuckable than your average lunch lady if only because life hasn't crushed her hopes and dreams yet...

...FUCK...I shouldn't skip lunch like this to watch porn in my office as I've now got a serious case of the "humpchies" (desire to hump + munchies)!

[ClubMedSux]

If you still have a desire to hump after watching porn then you're doing it wrong...

...or else I'll have whatever you had for breakfast.

[Sleeping Dog]

Well, the "munchies" part kind of gives me away but my witch doctor swears it's "medicinal"!

After my last post; on a hunch it took me about 30 seconds on Google to find porn of various McDonald's girls getting banged silly on every level surface those restaurants have to offer!

Would've been quicker but I forgot to turn off that fucking safe search and now I'm left wondering why most of the "counter girl" porn I found was from Japan!

I mean, why aren't more American sluts filming their getting degraded at their after school jobs?

Is it an OSHA thing?

[poguemahoney]

Wow...take your medication.

[hmm]

We need to have the TSA doing lunchbox checks. This would have never happened with the TSA on the job!

[Slut Bunwalla]

True. The TSA wouldn't have found the knife.

[Tim]

TSA would have confiscated the kid's juice box.

[Nick]

Or the apple.

[Chupacabra]

After feeling up all of the girls. And boys.

[Dave]

Zero tolerance is a policy designed to eliminate any need for thought by those who enforce it. It's an utterly stupid idea on its face and the fact that it's commonly employed by the education system just adds to the growing mountain of evidence that schools are run by those who are least intellectually equipped to do that job.

[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]

Does the word "duh" mean anything to you?

[Almanian]

I pretty mulled LOL'ed at this

[Dave]

Yes, but I'm probably not an authority on it and may not be able to define it in terms someone of your caliber would understand. I suggest you look it up and, with study, you will master its meaning.

[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]

There once was a man named Dave
who kept a whore in a cave
I must admit
that is smelled like shit
but think of all the money he saved!

[Fist of Etiquette]

...school policy allows principals to consider the context of each case and determine discipline.

If common sense disgression is not going to be used, it would save school districts a lot of money to simply replace school administrators with a copy of the rulebook. Prop it up at the principal's desk and defer to it in all matters.

[sarcasmic]

Common Sense is dead.

http://www.aprillorier.com/200.....sense.html

[Almanian]

The principal is there to read the rule book. Plus, it's a job "saved or created", therefore, critical to the Summer of Jobs Recovery, 2010.

Otherwise, you are, of course, spot on.

[wylie]

disgression

That's a new one.

[Ska]

I just had to check if it's a word. It has all the parts, but nope, my instincts were correct.

[Fist of Etiquette]

I didn't care for the so-called "correct" term. Its root is discrete, and that just doesn't make sense. So I made up my own word, AND YOU ALL KNEW WHAT I MEANT. And I was typing hurriedly. Additionally, English is a second language for me. Also, I went to public school.

[Kristen]

You sound like me trying to get out of a bad date ("I have my period I'm tired I have to work tomorrow I need to walk the dog my mom is in the hospital bye")

[sarcasmic]

That was you!?!

[SFC B]

You're apparently not the only reason commenter dating Kristen.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Also, I was being internet-molested by Mark Foley, so I was distracted by that and by the phone ringing. It was 2006 calling, telling me it wanted its Mark Foley reference back.

[Tim]

NEA says: "bullshit not books"

[cynical]

Rulebooks don't enforce themselves. For that, you need education bots. Of course, you'll also need to partner them with killbots to protect them from vandalism from fired school officials.

[poguemahoney]

Very true Dave...

[me]

How much of this will it take? How relentless does the drum beat of harmful, kid damaging idiocy have to be before a sane person or two does something to abate it? On a broader scale - how tyrannical do the police and their bosses have to be and how many innocents have to be harmed, have their property stolen and have their pets killed - how relentless does the drum beat have to be across the board before something gives? Apparently, we have learned from history, a few million have to be gassed and burned for ordinary people to start to notice there is an issue.

[wylie]

A few million? Should be more than enough school-kids for that, let's get started.

[sarcasmic]

The fact that ordinary people let strangers grope their children in public places shows that there is no limit to what people will allow to be done to them by those who claim to be in a position of authority.

[Stanley Milgram]

I warned you fuckers.

[Philip Zimbardo]

Me too!

[Fat Crack Ho]

Nicely said!

[TrickyVic]

""How much of this will it take?""

I think two things are in play. 1. The citzenry loves voting for tough on crime politicians so authority knows it's popular. 2. Way too many people think it won't happen to them. Zero tolerance only affects those breaking the rules. So the opinion for many is don't break the rules and you won't have a problem.

[James J.B. n.k.a McMillon]

And also there is this to considdr:

"Hey Obama called the Phila Eagles Coach about Michael Vick"
or
Oh Joy! another Royal wedding!!!!

Add also the concept of the collective good - that we are all oh so afraid of losing our safety and not our rights - you have Amerika as it stands now, where no measure, no matter how absurd (like screening children) - as long as we can say we are safer - it's ok right.

[Cunctator]

---"Add also the concept of the collective good"---

I don't know what this means.

[poguemahoney]

"Hey Obama called the Phila Eagles Coach about Michael Vick"
What does that have to do with this? You sound like an idiot...

[Tim]

She's just lucky they didn't catch her with a brownie.

[Mike in PA]

Oh sure... Bring race into this...

[Some Guy]

Hey, did you guys know that Girl Scout Cookies aren't made out of Girl Scouts?

[P Brooks]

If ever a school board meeting cried out for a man with a gun....

[Tim]

Now I'm gonna have to report you to the FUSION center.

[P Brooks]

We need to have the TSA doing lunchbox checks. This would have never happened with the TSA on the job!

Exactly. The knife would have gone undetected, the girl and her dad would have had a nice little chuckle that evening about the day they "ate each other's lunch" and the world would have continued to revolve on its axis.

[cynical]

On the downside, she would have been sexually assaulted instead of being suspended.

[Ick]

the girl and her dad would have had a nice little chuckle that evening about the day they "ate each other's lunch"

That's what they are calling it?

[Robert]

Let's look at the damages realistically. It'd be hard to prove the misdemeanor, whether it's true or not, because knowing possession would be a mandatory element of the crime. So I doubt she's going to get a criminal record.

She gets to finish school online, which many students would kill for. She can turn professional in soccer immediately, or (for leagues that require it) when she turns 18, and probably do better at it than if she'd gone to college.

[BakedPenguin]

Possession is possession. All they have to prove is that she had the knife, which she did. If her dad took a joint to work in his lunchbox, they would have her for possession of pot.

As far as the consequences, even if she wanted to join, the professional women's league folded. She now has a weapons conviction she has to include on any college application she submits. This makes her far less likely to get a scholarship, either academic or athletic.

I'd say that's pretty fucking harsh for picking up the wrong lunchbox.

[juris imprudent]

A school suspension is not a conviction.

As stupid as this is, don't up the ante.

[zoltan]

RTFA, idiot. She got charged with a misdemeanor possession.

[BakedPenguin]

Oops. Well, most of my 12:13 still stands.

[BakedPenguin]

You're correct, but it still has to be reported on any college admissions forms. Good luck trying to get into a good school with "suspended from school for weapon possession" on them.

[Nick]

She should make it the central issue of the written part of her application. "I want to go to your school so I can become Governor of this fine state. As Governor I will remove funding from all schools that practice a zero tolerance policy. Your school will get to have a grateful Governor as an alum."

[mr simple]

There's the WPS, but I'm not sure how long they will be around with the bad management and bad coaching.

[Robert]

She now has a weapons conviction she has to include on any college application she submits.

And what if she doesn't? Who's ever going to know? And if someone does find out, she just "forgot".

You report all your income? You think anyone does? Or tells the truth on resumes? Are people here that naive?

[poguemahoney]

I'm almost certain intent would be an element of an actual criminal charge...

[sarcasmic]

From the article:

Moss said students who accidentally carry a weapon and report it to teachers will get a light punishment.

I don't think her knowing about the knife matters. That's the whole idea behind zero tolerance.

This will go on her permanent record and will follow her for the rest of her life.

[Nick]

She's a minor, so shouldn't it be sealed?

[sarcasmic]

Nothing is sealed. That's a myth.

[Robert]

Her knowing about it matters in the criminal case.

[Kuwanki]

You goddam idiots! Don't you realize that it DOESN'T matter is she's convicted or not? My wife is in the criminal justice system; anyone who does a criminal background check will see the charge, and that is all they give a shit about. It is a stupid TV-retarded myth that the criminal background check will say "charges dropped for lack of evidence". Bullshit! Charges are NEVER dropped; they simply are not pursued. A 20 year old charge in a criminal background check looks like it's still pending an indictment. It's just hanging out there, and it CANNOT be erased. My wife explains this to potential employers and landlords every day. She explains this everyday to private individuals who can't rent an apartment or get a job because they have an arrest or a charge on their record. No matter what happens, this girl is totally fucked, and she is going to be explaining this incident for the rest of her life. Scholarship? Ha! She'll be lucky if she can rent an apartment. She's probably is already on a no-fly list. Public service? Good luck getting a security clearance. These nazi bastards have harmed this child permanently. And if you think differently then you have no understanding of what is actually happening here.

[Wind Rider]

So, if knives are verboten in any shape or form, have they banned teaching 'home ec' and the cooking classes at that school? Or do they spend those classes only making prepacked crap that only requires a spoon to mix before popping into a microwave?

[Brett L]

I routinely carried a pocket-knife to school. The evul Boy Scouts taught me that life-threatening habit. Still do carry one everywhere I can.

[Nick]

"...everywhere I can."

Thanks for respecting authoritah!

[Brett L]

Well, they do confiscate them from me at the airport. I'm not giving them a $25 pocket knife just to prove a point.

[Nick]

Put it in your carry-on next to your gun. They'll never find it.

[Brett L]

+1

[rac]

Ashley "Dylan Klebold" Smithwick could have pared many to death with this weapon. Then, we would have had to endure another Michael Moore documentary. Nip it in the bud, I say.

[Invisible Finger]

The teen was initially given a 10-day suspension, then received notice that she was suspended the rest of the school year...

I'm jealous. When I was her age, I had to actually shiv a person to get out of going to school and even then I had to prove it wasnt self-defense.

[Voros McCracken]

"She can turn professional in soccer immediately, or (for leagues that require it) when she turns 18, and probably do better at it than if she'd gone to college."

The job prospects for a female professional soccer player are essentially nil. Even if you're actually good enough to play regularly in the one professional league in existence (a league which threatens to fold every year) you'll be making Target level money.

The soccer scholarship is the easiest and best way to monetize whatever soccer skills she has, and these nitwits are jeopardizing it over a "weapon" roughly as effective as a ball point pen.

[BakedPenguin]

Timon, I thought the woman's league had already folded.

[Brett L]

Yeah, it did.

[BakedPenguin]

Sorry, Voros. Timon is usually the one who points out soccer related items. If he ever pointed out something baseball related, I'd probably reverse the mistake.

[Jim]

They started a new women's league last year (the WPS). It's still around.

[Professional Critic]

We're not on BigSoccer, Voros. Most here think Bend It Like Beckham was a documentary.

[Rrabbit]

If she were really good, she could play in the Swedish league.

[P Brooks]

these nitwits are jeopardizing it over a "weapon" roughly as effective as a ball point pen.

Now you've done it.

[P Brooks]

And- have you noticed how pointy those mechanical pencils are?

Lethal, I tells ya!

[TrickyVic]

You can put an eye out with those things.

[sarcasmic]

I still have two gray spots on my knee where the principal's son stabbed me with a pencil.

He never bothered me again after I gave him a similar mark on his chest.

[Doc]

Gee I must have missed the epidemic of school stabbings which prompted this policy.

[TrickyVic]

You don't need an epidemic, all you need is the fear of one.

[Edwin]

I don't see any problem with her punishment.You fucking anarchists, on the other hand, want to absolve her of any punishment.

[JustJosh]

Obvious troll is obvious.

[DesigNate]

I'm not an anarchist, but fuck you Edwin!

[Dello]

Somebody find her address and send her some Libertarian information!

[Doc]

Isn't there a viable lawsuit here? There appears to be serious harm to the student and the rule appears to violate all common sense.

[Nick]

It's a warrantless search and certainly cruel and unusual punishment.

[JustJosh]

Curious as to why the comment:
"Obvious troll is obvious"

would receive this message:
Your post (#2062980) has been marked as spam by a third-party spam filter. If this is a mistake, please email [e-mail].

Has it really become that bad?

[cynical]

Obvious troll is obvious

[cynical]

I'm pretty sure it just randomly marks comments as spam to fuck with people.

[wylie]

I thought that feature only kicked in when a comment exceeds a single paragraph.

[P Brooks]

Last fall (somewhere around Kalispell, I believe), a girl much like this one got into trouble for having a gun(!!!!) in her car. I never heard all the details, but it's a recurring theme; she had apparently been hunting (as Montana girls have been known to do), and forgot/ didn't have time to drop the thing off at home.

Panic, hysteria ensue; after a period of deliberation and handwringing, what happens? The No harm, no foul rule is invoked.

FYI- You wouldn't like it here; cold, windy, uncivilized. Stay where you are, especially if that place is California.

[Madbiker]

I have wanted to move to Montana since I was 16. Now I want to go there doubly so!

[Kristen]

Your mountains are too big and scary for me to ski on (although they're lovely for backpacking), so I'll go to Vermont where girls also hunt & fish 🙂

[Nick]

And can have guns without a license.

[Kristen]

Damn skippy!

[Madbiker]

too bad she is not the child of a teacher or aide in the school. In a district where I formerly taught, a girl's purse was randomly searched and turned out to contain 2 pseudoedphedrine tablets and an OTC strength dose of ibuprofen. According to the zero tolerance policy in place, the student should have been suspended and investigated for posession of drugs on campus.

It was all cool, though. Her mom was a special ed aide and a friend of the vice principal, so it was considered an appropriate and responsible possession of medication for relief of cold symptoms.

I wish I had video or audio of THAT conversation to expose the administration for the bungholes they are.

[BakedPenguin]

Even if you had video of massive favortism for family members, it might not result in anything.

[Madbiker]

please, please teleport me off this rock.

[Rock Action]

Along the same lines, I've been meaning to post this. You wanna see something? Try a cop killing a kid with his car (he'd been off-duty and drinking) whose father is the chief of police in that town.

http://www.ctnow.com/news/hc-w.....5372.story

[Rock Action]

I messed up the pronoun. The policeman's father is the Chief of Police.

[Rock Action]

err, on-duty Sgt.

Hell, you all get where this is going.

[Mr. FIFY]

Y'know who else came to school with a paring knife and an apple in THEIR lunchbox...

[EscapedWestOfTheBigMuddy]

Not me.

I carried a proper pocket knife, and had to clean it before I could cut my apple, 'cause I'd whipped it out in class earlier to sharpen my pencil.

Back when the world still had a smidgeon of sanity left in it.

[Rock Action]

I read the article. The first comment in the comment section has to address someone talking about Somalia.

I thought the liberal left was supposed to have the intellectual firepower these days or sumpin' like that.

[sarcasmic]

The liberal left has cornered the ad-hom market, but that's about it.

[Rock Action]

Maybe that market's bubble will burst like the dot-com one.

[wylie]

How do I invest in the ad-hom market, before the burst?

[Valawe]

During my senior year of high school a girl was suspended becuase, when they searched EVERY students' cars, they found at box cutter, that she used for her after school job at a grocery store, safely tucked in her work jacket's pocket. That day they also suspneded a kid who left an airsoft gun in his trunk. The airsoft hub was painted to look like a cow.

[John C. Randolph]

Seems to me that there's a business opportunity in operating a nearby parking facility off school grounds.

-jcr

[wylie]

New Rule: Student's driving to school must park on school grounds. Anyone entering the grounds on foot will be suspended.

[Sam Grove]

She is no longer allowed to set foot on campus.

Possibly the best thing the school has done for her.

[Rrabbit]

Is this legal? It is an outrage, but is it legal?

[Slut Bunwalla]

Of course. Children in school have no rights.

[Nooge]

Channeling Justice Thomas, SB?

[P Brooks]

"I want to go to your school so I can become Governor of this fine state. As Governor I will remove funding from all schools that practice a zero tolerance policy. Your school will get to have a grateful Governor as an alum."

Like THAT will win the hearts and minds of the admission staff of any college anywhere, with the *possible* exception of Hillsdale.

[Nick]

Crap, they don't have a girls soccer team.

In retaliation for harshing my buzz, I thread this comment, P Brooks!

[Reformed Republican]

I picture an Onion article. A girl gets stabbed on the way to school, close to the campus. She makes her way on campus, with the knife still in, and reports the stabbing to an administrator/security officer/whatever. She then gets suspended and arrested for possession of a weapon.

[John]

http://lee.schoolfusion.us/mod.....eid=113318

Check out the superintendent. He looks like just as much of a dousche as you would expect.

Here is the ask the super page

http://lee.schoolfusion.us/mod.....19103a2f5c

I have already asked him why he has made his community a national joke and how kids are supposed to feel safe when a single mistake can result in him and his minions ruining their lives. Feel free to follow.

[Nick]

I hope those links are the right person to bitch to. I just wrote a book.

[John]

Good. I hope the site crashes from all the bitching.

[wylie]

How's the douche supposed to receive all the scathing prose if the site goes down? Huh, smartguy?

[DesigNate]

I would totally do this, but no way in hell am I giving some sniveling bureaucratic assholes my name and email while grilling them.

[wylie]

You do know that those forms can't force you to enter valid information right?

Just for safety's sake though, do it from an internet cafe, or at the least, don't do it from a computer at work.

[Paul]

This month, Ashley Smithwick, a soccer player who takes college-level courses, was charged with misdemeanor possession of a weapon on school grounds. She is no longer allowed to set foot on campus.

So there is an upside to the story.

[John]

I am losing hope. I don't see how anything but violence can ever save us from these petty tyrants.

[Nick]

That's why they keep disarming us of the kitchen cutlery.

[CJ]

I'm hoping for something like the Free State Project except that instead of just moving to somewhere that's still under the thumb of the federal government but is comparably better, the people issue a second Declaration of Independence and start from scratch.

[Bob Smith]

Too bad zerointelligence.net, they used to have daily accounts of stories like this.

[Bob Smith]

I meant "too bad zerointelligence.net is defunct".

[Nooge]

Dammit, Radley, I don't have enough Dale's Pale Ale to read this stuff today.

Is there anything that can be done to help her?

[John C. Randolph]

Left in the inbox of the head douchebag in that school system:

Mr. Moss, I'm writing today to inquire when you'll be resigning your position, since you're obviously far too stupid to remain on the taxpayer's payroll in your current capacity.

Your disgraceful incompetence in the matter of Ashley Smithwick's inadvertent bringing a paring knife to school in her lunchbox, shows that you're the very worst kind of bureaucrat: one who clings to idiotic rules in place of common sense.

A kitchen knife is a tool. Like a chair, or a baseball bat, or even a heavy book, it does not become a weapon unless brandished or wielded with aggressive intent.

Your abject failure to make this obvious distinction shows me that like every other academic failure I've met with an "Ed. D" after his name, you are too fucking stupid to pour piss out of a boot without instructions stamped on the hell.

You are a blithering idiot, Mr. Moss. Why don't you do us all a favor and apply for a job in the manual excavation trade?

[DesigNate]

That's a great rant. Hopefully he won't be smart enough to realize you misspelled heel. (Not trying to be an ass and given the circumstances, he's already proved how stupid he is.)

[Janet Napolitano]

I too have sent Principal Moss a message:

"You're doin' a heck of a job, Mossy! If you get to Washington, be sure and give me a call, because we can always use another fanatical rule-follower here at DHS!"

[REMOVE BEFORE FLIGHT *TAG*]

bah all these slow learners.. A freedom loving, thinking youngster gets excommunicated from public school no latter then 15. Is starting their 2nd business or 2nd degree by 18. And is buy their parents retirement homes at 20.

Anything less is just lazy or libertarian....

[jim sadler]

They play all kinds of games trying to keep useless kids from dropping out of school and then throw good kids out for no damn reason at all.

[April Lorier]

I do hope if you use 'Eulogy for Common Sense' you will give proper attribution.

[Some Guy]

Vigilante justice is the only answer to such things.

[jim sadler]

We seem intent on raising a nation of cowards. Back in the day when we had a bad guy in school the teachers would ask us to get them out back and beat them until they improved their behavior. Now they are terrified of even a tiny nail file in a girl's purse. Schools are messed up. Where do they get ideas like this story mentions?

[jim sadler]

We seem intent on raising a nation of cowards. Back in the day when we had a bad guy in school the teachers would ask us to get them out back and beat them until they improved their behavior. Now they are terrified of even a tiny nail file in a girl's purse. Schools are messed up. Where do they get ideas like this story mentions?

[jim sadler]

We seem intent on raising a nation of cowards. Back in the day when we had a bad guy in school the teachers would ask us to get them out back and beat them until they improved their behavior. Now they are terrified of even a tiny nail file in a girl's purse. Schools are messed up. Where do they get ideas like this story mentions?

[Application Migration]

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[Outsourced Product Development]

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