2.02.2011

Zero Tolerance

A high school freshman took the guts out of a pen, inserted some little plastic balls and shot spit balls at some people in class at Spotsylvania High School in Virginia. Childish - yes. But surprisingly fun as Pliny found when he was a young buck. When I got caught, I was sent to the principles office and told to knock it off. Now, this kid was expelled, arrested and charged with assault. He was 'guilty of using a weapon to harm and intimidate other students'. Part of a national trend toward zero tolerance of weapons and violence.

Pliny is in favor of another zero tolerance policy - zero tolerance toward idiots who cannot understand the difference between shooting spit balls and brandishing an AKM.

5 comments:

Jared said...

But dear Pliny, today, it's spit balls, the next, it might be balls of paper fired with compressed air, then it could be copper jacketed projectiles. I mean, where do you draw the line!

I would laugh, if this wasn't so sad. The child is being denied education because he shot spit balls at classmates?

Big Mark 243 said...

If our gun obsessed national pysche was not so fearful (because the fear is what drives us to become arm ourselves) of what we think someone may want to do to us, then we'd not need a zero tolerance police but could rely on our own good judgement...

... who am I kidding?

Anonymous said...

Jared's right. Spitballs are a gateway weapon.

As much as I don't find it elucidating to conjecture about what the "founding fathers" would think of this or that, the absurdity here demands some contrast.

What Would Jefferson Do?

Pliny-the-in-Between said...

As for the causal effect of spitball mayhem leading to greater and greater lethality, I can offer only my own poor story. I gave up my life of crime and became a somewhat productive member of society...

I can only wonder when we will reach the point that it becomes illegal to be a normal kid.

Big Mark - welcome. The biggest problem is where will kids learn good judgement - certainly not from us at this rate ;)

GearHedEd said...

Pliny said,

"I can only wonder when we will reach the point that it becomes illegal to be a normal kid."

It's been frowned upon if not illegal for a long time now...

ever heard of Ritalin?

(word verification = "trogism")