Brickbat: Neutering the Sheepdogs

Paulgi / photo on flickr

Officials at Florida's Cypress Lake High School suspended three students who wrestled a loaded gun away from another student. The student with the gun was pointing it at a student and threatening to shoot him when the three grabbed him and took the gun away. A local TV station reports they were given an emergency suspension of three days because they were part of an "incident" with a gun.

Comments

[John Galt]

The title reflects an entirely correct observation. We've allowed ourselves to become a nation of sheep vaginas ruled by a clique of arrogant and overbearing wolves. Well, folks really do get the governments they deserve. All the reason we should need to pull back from meddling with everyone else's regimes so we can concentrate on fixing our own. (by 'fixing' I mean neutering, of course)

[Suthenboy]

I went to high school in the late 70's and hated every minute of it. Academics was not the first priority, even back then. It was all about forcing conformity and obedience on kids.

Sheep vaginas indeed.

[WTF]

I went to high scholl during the same time, and while you are correct, it was not nearly as bad as it is now.

[Suthenboy]

True, I cant imagine that if this had happened when I was there that it would have turned out like this. We would have been given medals.

Still, see Cyto's comment downthread. Morons have always been with us.

[Suthenboy]

This is the greatest idiocy yet to come from our school officials, and very likely it cannot be topped. However, I am certain that school officials elsewhere will try.

[Drake]

It can't be topped? I'll give it 2 months.

[PS]

Just like paid leave except for the paid part.

[West Texas]

HEY! You need to just cringe and get shot like all the other good little sheep! It's not your job to fight back!

[invisible furry hand]

if they had been shot they would also have been part of incident with a gun and suspended, presumably

[Suthenboy]

Perhaps they are being punished for preventing another excuse to call for more gun control?

[mad libertarian guy]

This is EXACTLY why he was suspended.

He kept the literati from having another body to throw atop their pile of dead in order to keep the gun control argument going.

[Suthenboy]

An RG-14....that is the same model Hinkley used to shoot Reagan. It is super junk....you can never be sure if the damn thing is going to fire or not. Sadly, Hinkley's did work.

What is it with high profile assassins and crappy guns? Oswald and his Carcano, Sirhan's Iver Johnson cadet,
Hinkley and his RG-14. There have been a few decent firearms used, but mostly they use what I would consider a wall-hanger or a boat anchor.

[Professional Target]

I wouldn't mar my wall or poison the water with an RG product. Saw an RG (don't remember the model number) .38spl that had cracked the cylinder firing low velocity wadcutters.

[Cyto]

While this is about as ridiculous as a situation is going to get, it is not without precedent. School people are just... well, weird.

When I was in college way back in the 80's we had an "incident" during an intramural basketball game. A couple of guys got into it on the court. Everyone who was on the court at the time was suspended from all intramural sports for the rest of the year. Everyone who left the bench was suspended for the rest of the year - it is against the rules to leave the bench, even if you are breaking up the fight. And (this is the real kicker), everyone who stayed on the bench was suspended.... because "it is not OK to just sit there and do nothing when a fight breaks out. You have a responsibility to try to stop it."

I missed that game due to a lab section - so I just got a reprimand letter. I always thought this was an excellent example of our future government leaders in action. History has proven me out on that one, I'm afraid.

[Suthenboy]

Wow. I hope you framed that letter of reprimand and have it hanging on your wall.

[WTF]

I missed that game due to a lab section - so I just got a reprimand letter.

Holy shit. Future government leaders indeed.

[Xenocles]

He should have been there meeting his commitments.

[John C. Randolph]

So, the pinheads in charge want everyone to just cower in terror at the sight of a gun, and will punish anyone who acts to protect themselves and others?

The real story here is the rampant incompetence of school officials all over the country.

-jcr

[some guy]

Remember kids: Only Law Enforcement Officers and Soldiers are allowed to be heroes. Everyone else must be meek and dependent.

[Brett L]

Guys, guys. You're blaming the wrong thing. Its probably just district policy that everyone "involved" in an incident involving a firearm be suspended under zero tolerance rules. So really, it isn't the principal's fault at all. We should take our torches and pitchforks to the school board, instead.

[Professional Target]

Lord knows they know me down at the school board.

[JD the elder]

The "involvement" thing makes perfect sense if you think of this as kind of a primitive religious ritual. See, the gun is taboo and unclean. Anyone who has come into contact with it in any way is now himself unclean, and must be purified through ritual punishment. This means the school board is somewhat less sophisticated than your average tribe of illiterate savages...which should surprise nobody.

[Eduard van Haalen]

I made a similar analysis yesterday. It's a matter of ritual purity, prompted by a disgust reaction such as analyzed by Jonathan Haidt, except Haidt attributes this sort of thing to conservatives.

http://reason.com/blog/2013/03.....nt_3584156

[wareagle]

this has "procedures were followed" all over it. These are the same school folks who treat nail clippers like Uzis and Tylenol like crack. Zero tolerance pretty much ensures zero common sense.

However, a part of me thinks officials are pissed the kid acted because his preventing a bloody aftermath also prevented an excuse for expanding their authority.

[some guy]

However, a part of me thinks officials are pissed the kid acted because his preventing a bloody aftermath also prevented an excuse for expanding their authority.

I wouldn't go that far. The officials are just pissed that the kids undermined their current authority. They know expanding their authority is easy enough to do without anyone getting killed.

[crashland]

Right and "I was just following orders" is an acceptable excuse for any act no matter how stupid.

[some guy]

That's why we have so many orders (laws) nowadays. No one can be punished for following orders and the orders are handed down by society at large via democracy. It's the ultimate 'mea innocentia'.

[sarcasmic]

Last year my stepson was "involved" in a fight. Rather he pushed away some kid who was trying to punch him in the head. So the school suspended him for three days.
Lesson learned: If you want to get someone suspended, go punch them in the head.

[some guy]

That one has been around for decades. Fortunately, most bullies don't seem to realize the power this gives them over their victims.

[Ted S.]

I had something like that happen to be when I was in 7th grade, back in 1985.

[Sarg221]

I had a similar event in 1st grade. Here I was blocking punches from some (relatively) big 4th grader, and I get in trouble for fighting while he gets of without even being talked to. Long story short, my dad works with a lot of lawyers, and the school got a nice little letter from one of them. The teacher had to go though some "retraining."

[Heroic Mulatto]

According to the mother, the school suspended her son because he refused to cooperate in the investigation. She says he was scared.

Playing Devil's Advocate, perhaps the school "suspended" the kid as an ersatz witness protection program?

[Fatty Bolger]

They suspended all three kids who took the gun away. I doubt they are all refusing to cooperate, and besides, in a situation this serious it would be the police investigating, not the school. Sounds like BS from school admins to me.

[Heroic Mulatto]

I assumed they meant the kid wasn't cooperating in the police investigation.

[phandaal]

Wouldn't he be in trouble with the cops then, not the police?

[phandaal]

*not the school.

It's early.

[some guy]

Wouldn't he be in trouble with the cops then, not the police?

Maybe you're just distinguishing between the official face of law enforcement and the unofficial face.

Break a law? In trouble with the police.

Disrespect the police? In trouble with the cops. Stop resisting!

[phandaal]

Yes... my addled morning brain has just uncovered a great truth! Now it all becomes clear.

[Ted S.]

And I thought my 8:14 AM post below was muddled.

[phandaal]

It makes sense if you don't think about it.

[Heroic Mulatto]

Wouldn't he be in trouble with the cops then, not the [school]?

He could be in trouble with both; I'm sure the investigation is being conducted by the School Resource Officer.

The State has many faces.

[phandaal]

Good point.

[Ted S.]

"School Resource Officer" is another term I hate, because it's one of those terms that seems deliberately designed to make it unclear to the average person what somebody with that title does. It's even worse when schools start using the acronyms, like SRO.

My mother was a teacher's aide for the slow kids, but her official title was "paraprofessional". I could never get anybody to explain to me the difference beteen a paraprofeesional and a paraamateur.

Even worse, though, was that the union referred to people like my mother as "SRPs" -- for "school-related personnel".

[Heroic Mulatto]

My mother was a teacher's aide for the slow kids, but her official title was "paraprofessional". I could never get anybody to explain to me the difference beteen a paraprofeesional and a paraamateur

The prefix "para-" means "next to". A paramedic works "next to" a doctor. A paraprofessional works next to a "licensed professional".

[SugarFree]

A paraprofessional is someone that does the work of a professional in the same industry, but gets paid far less because of lack of (mostly) meaningless credentials. It's adapted from "paralegal" but the line between a paralegal and a lawyer is often more sharp.

[Spartacus]

Does that mean a parapsychologist is someone who does the same thing as a psychologist?

[phandaal]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Dresden

Paraprofessional.

[Longtorso]

The kid was suspended for making the cops look bad. He did something, while at a school shooting the cops just surround the place waiting for the shooter to commit suicide.

[Heroic Mulatto]

OFFICER SAFETY!

[Ted S.]

while at a school shooting the cops just surround the place waiting for the shooter to commit suicide.

Shouldn't they at least be looking for puppies to shoot?

[crashland]

Yes, we are certainly freer today than a couple of decades ago.

Have you heard the news?
The dogs are dead!
You better stay home
And do as you're told.
Get out of the road if you want to grow old.

But then again, with the dogs all dead, we sheeple can blissfully tune into mindless retard-reality TV, drink our sugar water, cash our government checks and vote for our masters every couple of years.

[ZinxMinx]

Ther eis a dude that really knwos whats going on . Wow.

http://www.Anon-Web.da.bz

[Ted S.]

But does he make $7136 a month staying home on the internet?

[BuSab Agent]

Not him but his mother does.

[Ted S.]

If I were one of the three kids, I'd respond that when next time somebody holding a gun to an administrator's head, I'd let them shoot, since I wouldn't feel like getting suspended again.

[The Late P Brooks]

Analyzing facts is hard.

[Spartacus]

My wife used to teach at that school about 15 years ago. It has become considerably more urbanized since then, except for the arts magnet part, which is basically on a separate campus.

[The Late P Brooks]

How dare those kids attempt to act for themselves? They have no special training, no certificates of proficiency, no state sanction for the use of force. What if the gun had gone off? Those kids would have been just as guilty as Adam Lanza.

[DeadLenny]

I ran across this story on Fark; the funniest bit was reading the comments in the local paper. Apparently the whole scenario was staged and is part of Obama's plan to take away everyone's guns. We're talking about levels of paranoia and conspiracy-theorizing that makes Mike Adams look stable.