12/11/2013

This Is Just Plain Stupid

To quote Squidward, “Just when I though they couldn’t get any stupider.”

As more than a few of my dozen or so readers may remember, I have a special dislike for zero-tolerance policies, especially those implemented in our schools. I have always thought them to be a sign of laziness, incompetence, or a major case of CYA. As I have mentioned to one of our local school administrators that since such policies have no leeway, administrators in schools burdened by them could easily be replaced by a computer programmed with all of the school policies, and by using a simple checklist interface the offending students could be sanctioned per those policies. Since no actual decision-making is required, a computer could do the job of overreacting more quickly and efficiently than a human administrator, and for a fraction of the cost.

What brings this to the forefront again?

Yet another case of zero-tolerance idiocy being perpetrated upon a six-year-old.

The offense for which the six-year old is being punished? Kissing a girl’s hand. For that action he has been suspended from school for two days.

Hunter Yelton is an energetic first-grader who has a passion for science and P.E., but it's his love of a classmate that now has him labeled as a "sexual harasser."

Hunter's mother, Jennifer Saunders, told CNN affiliate KRDO the Canon City, Colo., 6-year-old has a crush on a girl in his class. Hunter told KRDO he kissed the student on the hand during reading group. That landed him a two-day suspension from school and an entry of sexual harassment in his school file.

Hunter and his mom admit this isn't the first time Hunter has kissed his classmate. He's been suspended before for kissing the same student on the cheek, but Saunders insists the two are "boyfriend and girlfriend" and that the attention isn't unwelcome. Saunders is outraged that her son has been labeled a "sexual harasser," a label that will stay in his file as long as he is in the Canon City school district.

WTF?

These zero-tolerance PC jerks have taken this crap too far. They should be fired, every single one of them, and they should be banned from being within 500 yards of schoolchildren for the rest of their lives. Do they honestly think they’re helping anyone or preventing some future offense by criminalizing youngsters who can’t even grasp the concept of sexual harassment?

I can remember when kissing a girl’s hand was considered to be good manners and proper etiquette. Now it’s a sexual offense.