Zero Intelligence

T here has to be a point where we draw the line. A place where we, as a nation, decide we’ve had enough of the bullying, name-calling, and harassment. Sooner or later we have to stand up to the ridiculous insanity that has taken over our schools, and demand that administrators be held accountable for the harm they’re causing our children with their insane ‘zero tolerance’ policies.

When I was a sophomore in high school, about 1976, I took my .22 rifle to school one day, to use as a prop in a play. No problem. My principal and several teachers saw the gun, and didn’t complain. If one of my sons had taken the same rifle to the same school he would have been expelled.

Granted, taking a gun to school might not be the best idea these days, since attitudes have changed and many parents seem incapable of teaching their children proper behavior. And yes, that problem lies with the parents. It is not the school’s responsibility to teach kids not to shoot one another. A child’s education is the sole responsibility of his or her parents. A school is a tool the parents can use to help educate children. If a kid doesn’t learn, don’t blame the teacher. Blame the parents. Every time.

Most of today’s parents, however, have turned the job of educating their kids over to the school. School administrators, in turn, have decided their job is to raise kids, since parents are unable or unwilling to do it.

If parents don’t care to raise their own children, and are content to allow the local school to do it for them, they are welcome to do that. The problems arise when good parents try to raise their children as they see fit, and the school interferes. When that happens the school is wrong. Every time.

Kristy Jackson and her husband, of Collinsville, Illinois, seem to fall into this category, along with Hunter, their son. With a boy named Hunter, it seems apparent that the Jacksons are probably passing on an outdoor heritage to their child. So it should come as no surprise that Hunter recently showed up at his preschool, ‘A Place 2 Grow’ in Troy, IL with a brass casing from a spent .22 cartridge to show his friends.

Hunter had previously been reprimanded, multiple times, for using various toys as “pretend” guns. When a teacher saw the inert, entirely safe .22 casing, Hunter was in trouble. He was sent to the office of Mallory Lengermann, director of the preschool. When his mother arrived at the school to pick up her son she was met by a ‘stone faced teacher,’ according to Kristy Jackson’s Facebook post about the incident. The teacher told Hunter’s mom that he had brought a ‘shotgun bullet’ to school.

The administration of A Place 2 Grow is probably typical of people in such positions, since they claim to advocate education, but refuse to learn even the most basic facts about firearms. There is no such thing as a ‘shotgun bullet.’ Shotguns don’t shoot bullets. In fact, Hunter had not brought a bullet to school, but only part of a cartridge, and not a shotgun cartridge. There was no powder, no primer, nothing dangerous about the casing. I would be willing to bet that, if I were to look in Ms. Lengermann’s purse, I would find several items far more detrimental to health than an empty brass casing.

Hunter was suspended from preschool for seven days, and his parents were told that if his unacceptable behavior continued, he would be expelled indefinitely. In other words, Hunter is welcome at A Place 2 Grow, as long as he doesn’t act like a normal, typical 4-year-old boy.

Hunter’s case is in no way unique. A 5-year-old girl in North Carolina named Caitlin Miller was recently suspended from school for playing with a stick that resembled a gun. A Denver, Colorado 5-year-old was suspended for bringing a toy bubble blowing gun to kindergarten. We could list many more incidents, but suffice it to say the insanity is epidemic.

School administrators will continue to display zero intelligence in regard to firearm rules until parents demand that they grow up and educate themselves. Everyone wants their children to be safe. No one wants their kids to be discriminated against, especially when they’ve done nothing wrong.