Y’know, if there’s something that gets the average citizen to press for school vouchers and private alternatives to public education, it’s not going to be educational reform or testing or anything like that. It’s going to be yahoos like the administration at Creek Elementary School in Oklahoma, who suspended a sixth grader for the horrific crime of “shooting” his finger at another student.
The scary/aggravating thing about this is that usually school administrators hide behind, “Well, we have to follow the letter of the rules, so we don’t have any discretion [liability] here.” In this case …
[Muskogee School Superintendent] Gleichman said that pointing a finger like a gun is not specifically addressed in the district handbook for elementary students. But he said it could be construed as threatening and would be covered under the district’s anti-bullying rules.
“Right now, its all kind of in the eyes of the beholder,” Gleichman said. “I’m not saying every principal at every school would address it the same way, but they’d have to do something.”
Really? They would?
I particularly enjoy how it “could” be considered threatening, and therefore automatically qualifies as “bullying.”
Read the article. Pay close attention to how the school’s story has changed, and how, in response to questions about that, “they could not comment on the punishment of a particular student due to confidentiality laws.”
How convenient.
Swear to God, if Katherine ever gets caught up in insanity like this, I’ll shoot my damned finger at the principal, and see whether the police want to file charges.
The finger of shame – don’t point it, people are watching.
UPDATE: The kid is back in classes, after the local NAACP (!) went over the school policies with administrators and discovered, hey, there’s no policy forbidding shooting someone with a finger gun. Imagine that. Someone just got overzealous after going to a seminar. Figures.
The article also mentions planned legislation in Oklahoma that will make some sane distinctions between machetes and nail files. Imagine that.
At the same time, the superintendent remains unrepentent about the whole thing.
If the world’s changed, it’s because of folks like Gleichman.