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Zero out Zero Tolerance

The Calabash Unified School District Board of Education adopted and repeatedly re-adopted a zero-tolerance policy which mandates suspension and encourages expulsion of students who "carry, bring, use, possess or personate a weapon or weapon facsimile at school" to send an unambiguous message to students and to protect the school from possible legal action.

Calabash-Hoover High Honor Student Bickley Barkley was recently expelled for violating that policy. His offense? Outraging his history teacher's sensibilities with a term paper on the Battle of the Bulge, which delved into the weapons technologies of the combatants, including a detailed analysis with pictures and specifications of the Wehrmacht's MP44 firearm, credited with being the first assault weapon ever developed and deployed.

Immediately thereafter, the topic of World War II was stricken from the classroom for fear of appearing to advocate violence and promote aggressive, anti-social behavior, thereby endangering the student body at large and exposing the district to legal liabilities.

The road to hell is paved with good intentions everywhere except, of course, in our public school system thanks to the vigilant efforts of the ACLU to purge every whiff and scintilla of the Christian religion from each and every dark, dank corner of academia, which gives us pause to wonder where exactly educators believe their Zero Tolerance policies will lead.

If the fall-out from poor Bickley's any indication, then their journey is an nonstop express to the heart of ignorance.



©2005 MFTHPPPGT




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