The first annual Elementary and Middle School Stupidity Awards

[RuralEngineer]

I thought this was fantastic.  A compilation and awards style presentation highlighting just how stupid many of the people we entrust our children with actually are.  I've quoted a couple of my favorites, but the article has a wide range of good (and by that I mean horrible) stuff.  And it's all over the map.  From guns, to racism, to the hair color Nazis.

http://news.yahoo.com/daily-caller-pres ... 08884.html

J.O. Davis Elementary (Irving, Tex.): Cruelest economic incentive for second-graders

A seven-year-old boy at at J.O. Davis Elementary wet his pants in class because he hadn’t accumulated enough good behavior credits to secure a trip to the bathroom. His teacher had a reward system using “Boyd Bucks.”? The cost of an unscheduled bathroom visit was two Boyd Bucks. Unfortunately, the boy was fresh out of Boyd Bucks when nature called urgently. “He tried to hold it as much as he could, but he just couldn’t,”? the boy’s mother said. “He came home from school, and he was crying and really upset.”? (RELATED: Second-grade teacher charges good-behavior ‘bucks’ for bathroom breaks; empty-pocketed boy wets pants)

I'd like to think I'd be smart and go for the money, but there's a solid chance I'd get jail time for beating the shit out of that teacher if they made my kid wet his pants because they refused to let him go to the bathroom.  My personal approach to authority would have me urinating on the teachers desk, but a 2nd grader can't be expected to differentiate between when it's acceptable to ignore authority figures because they're bat-shit crazy.

Strobridge Elementary School (Hayward, Calif.): Silliest gun buyback program

The toy gun trade-in at Strobridge Elementary allowed kids to swap their harmless toy weapons for a raffle ticket and a chance to win a shiny, new bicycle. “Playing with toys guns, saying ‘I’m going to shoot you,’ desensitizes them, so as they get older, it’s easier for them to use a real gun,”? said Chris Hill, the school principal. The trade-in occurred on the school’s “Safety Day”? which also featured safety tips from police officers and firefighters. Fingerprinting for participation in a real government database was also available. (RELATED: School asks kids to trade in toy guns for a bicycle)

*emphasis added is mine

[Pointedstick]

Speaking of "safety day" with police present:

Officer Chris Webb was attending “career day”? at Tularosa New Mexico Intermediate School when he sent 50,000 volts of electricity into the child’s chest on the playground. The young boy blacked out and has, according to his legal representative, been suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder ever since; the officer faces a civil suit.

According to the complaint, Webb shot his Taser at the child (referred to only as “R.D.”?) after he said he did not want to join fellow classmates in cleaning the officer’s patrol car. Courthouse News reported:

    “Defendant Webb responded by pointing his Taser at R.D. and saying, ‘Let me show you what happens to people who do not listen to the police.’”?

    Webb then shot “two barbs into R.D.’s chest,”? the complaint states. “Both barbs penetrated the boy’s shirt, causing the device to deliver 50,000 volts into the boy’s body. “Defendant Webb pulled the barbs out [of] the boy’s chest, causing scarring where the barbs had entered the boy’s skin that look like cigarette burns on the boy’s chest.

    “The boy, who weighed less than 100 lbs., blacked out.”?Instead of calling emergency medical personnel, Officer Webb pulled out the barbs and took the boy to the school principal’s office,”? the complaint states.

Following the May 4 incident, Webb, who claims he accidentally discharged the Taser, was given only a three-day suspension.

http://www.salon.com/2012/10/31/cop_use ... r_old_boy/

[Xan]

One thing we desperately need is for government to get out of the business of running schools.  There's just no upside.

[Reub]

One thing we desperately need is for government to get out of the business of running schools.  There's just no upside.

  + 1001

There is plenty of upside. If you're a teachers union. Or a politician.

[RuralEngineer]

Speaking of "safety day" with police present:

Officer Chris Webb was attending “career day”? at Tularosa New Mexico Intermediate School when he sent 50,000 volts of electricity into the child’s chest on the playground. The young boy blacked out and has, according to his legal representative, been suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder ever since; the officer faces a civil suit.

According to the complaint, Webb shot his Taser at the child (referred to only as “R.D.”?) after he said he did not want to join fellow classmates in cleaning the officer’s patrol car. Courthouse News reported:

    “Defendant Webb responded by pointing his Taser at R.D. and saying, ‘Let me show you what happens to people who do not listen to the police.’”?

    Webb then shot “two barbs into R.D.’s chest,”? the complaint states. “Both barbs penetrated the boy’s shirt, causing the device to deliver 50,000 volts into the boy’s body. “Defendant Webb pulled the barbs out [of] the boy’s chest, causing scarring where the barbs had entered the boy’s skin that look like cigarette burns on the boy’s chest.

    “The boy, who weighed less than 100 lbs., blacked out.”?Instead of calling emergency medical personnel, Officer Webb pulled out the barbs and took the boy to the school principal’s office,”? the complaint states.

Following the May 4 incident, Webb, who claims he accidentally discharged the Taser, was given only a three-day suspension.

http://www.salon.com/2012/10/31/cop_use ... r_old_boy/

In what universe is this not felony assault?  Tasers kill people all the time.  How did the cop know the child didn't have an undiagnosed heart condition?  Or hell, a diagnosed heart condition that wasn't broadcast because the parents didn't plan for random taserings by rogue cops.

Cops use tasers because they're considered a "less bad" solution to neutralizing a suspect than shooting them with a gun or beating them with a baton.  That doesn't mean that they aren't a potentially deadly weapon.

From wikipedia:

The head of the U.S. southern regional office of Amnesty International, Jared Feuer, claimed that 277 people in the United States have died after being shocked by a Taser between June 2001 and October 2007, which has already been documented.

  They document quite a few deaths chronologically.

The kid probably had less risk or death if the cop had walked over and punched him in the face, which would have definitely earned a felony assault charge.  Well, he's a cop so probably just a paid leave (aka, vacation).

I'd say more but...

Best to not imagine what it would be like if it were my child.

[Benko]

Rural,

My favorite made #1  they suspended a child because he bit a poptart (pastry) into the shape of a gun (Welch’s goal had been to turn it into a mountain, but that didn’t materialize.)

[MediumTex]

Rural,

My favorite made #1  they suspended a child because he bit a poptart (pastry) into the shape of a gun (Welch’s goal had been to turn it into a mountain, but that didn’t materialize.)

To give you an idea how much the world has changed, when I was a kid we had western-style dress up day at my elementary school (this was about 1978) and one 6th grade kid brought a real unloaded revolver in his holster and we all thought it was really cool.

Ironically, back then when there was a lot less random student on teacher and student on student violence, there was far more systematic teacher on student violence in the form of paddlings--i.e., aggravated assault and/or obvious child abuse, either of which are felonies.  I really don't know why no one seemed to notice this at the time.  I wonder what would have happened if I had called the police as a first grader who had been paddled and said that I had just been beaten by an adult with a large stick because he said he didn't like the fact that I was chewing gum earlier in the day.

If one of my kids came home from third or fourth grade and reported that a male employee at the school had beaten them with a stick, I would freak out.

There is not a more frightening experience as a child than being surrounded by two or three adults in a room with a closed door as they prepare to administer a ritual beating with an elaborately designed piece of wood.  Any possible benefit to a child from such an experience is IMHO utterly outweighed by the sense of terror, helplessness and arbitrariness of what is happening to them (I say arbitrary because girls were typically never paddled).

To the old saw about "spare the rod, spoil the child", I might say that that's about as misleading on an individual level as it would be to say about government and society: "Spare the coercion, spoil the population."  To that entire way of thinking I would simply say "Please don't use the threat of violence to patronize me."