"Michael Sheridan was stripped of his title as class vice president, barred from attending an honors student dinner and suspended for a day after buying a bag of Skittles from a classmate."

Seems it violated a school "wellness policy." Evil child, evil child.

This is what happens when nanny laws go out of control. This struck my eye because Baltimore looks like it is following other cities in banning trans fats. "Hey buddy, I got fries here. I'll even give you the first few for free..."

http://www.9news.com/news/watercooler/article.aspx?storyid=87972

Your whole country seems sick.
Who allows things like this to happen?
Parents? Voters? Legislators? School Governors?

Your whole country seems sick.
Who allows things like this to happen?
Parents? Voters? Legislators? School Governors?

Voters who keep voting for the same old idiots and non-voters who feel they are too good to participate. We get what we deserve.

Voters who keep voting for the same old idiots and non-voters who feel they are too good to participate. We get what we deserve.

That sums it up pretty well, unfortunately. A lot of times the "same old idiot" has a new face but is cast from the same mold. I have no patience for non-voters with political opinions. Some people I work with flaunt the fact that they don't vote, so whenever they say anything political I'll ask them "Did you vote in that election?" they'll say "Well, no, but..." and I might be a jerk for saying "Then your opinion is worthless" but I do anyway. I love it when they hang their hat on the fact that few elections are decided by one vote, so their one vote wouldn't matter anyway. What an enlightened viewpoint...

Yeah, we get what we deserve. Fortunately this isn't everybody but I'm afraid it's far too high of a percentage.

Its time for revolution! Every student should sneak a bag of skittles in and open them at the same time.

Who allows things like this to happen?
Parents? Voters? Legislators? School Governors?

Unfortunately, ALL of those people do. There is a serious lack of common sense among many Americans. It starts with a good idea (get kids to eat healthier), but honestly, who the hell thinks suspension is proper punishment for buying/selling Skittles at school?! If I had to guess, the school had a rule about selling contraband (likely meant for things that are an actual problem, like drugs) and failed to separate candy, as a contraband, from more illicit things. So the moron principal just "went by the book" and suspended the kid - an utter and ridiculous lack of any common sense whatsoever.

There was a similar case where a child, I think a Kindergartener or very young, brought a GI Joe or some sort of very tiny toy gun to school - so small it would never, ever be confused to be real. But the kid was expelled for bringing a gun to school b/c the rule didn't distinguish b/t toy guns and real guns! I think that one was overturned, eventually.

Just like the schools that have completely banned all touching. It started out as a no kissing rule, and the problem is, no one wants to have to make a decision. The teacher doesn't want to deal with an angry parent, so she sends the student to the principal. He doesn't want to deal with parents or take any responsibility, so he just says, "it's not me, it's the rule." So stupid.

Lack of common sense is not unique to Americans. In the UK, last year, one of the top 4 supermarket chains (Morrisons) set a rule that ALL people buying alcohol had to show ID - this was (quite reasonably) because it is sometimes hard to tell when someone is 18 or not. It hit the newspapers when they refused to sell a couple of bottles of wine to an old age pensioner, because he refused point-blank to participate in the charade.

You can read it here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/merseyside/7003325.stm

Mind you, if they refused to sell me alcohol (me being 54) because they weren't sure I was of age, they would be my friend for life :D

Morrisons rescinded the rule soon afterwards!

Cheers
Mike

Update: The boy's record has been cleared, and he got his post as VP of the class back.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/03/13/skittles.suspension.ap/index.html?eref=rss_topstories

Is this a result of the people in charge realizing how stupid their original decision was, or because of how stupid they looked in the media once the story started making national headlines?

Interesting.....

Let's look at this another way. Whose fault is it that kids are fat? Well, the schools cut funding, and gym, art and music are the first to go. So it's the schools fault, because the kids should have gym class, not to mention the vending machines contain soda and candy, so that's what they have for lunch. As a parent, let's blame the school, they should be doing more.

So now, the school has to put regulations on what the kids can and can't eat, can and can't drink, so on so forth...because everyone else is to busy to take the time. Both parents working, you send your kid to school expecting them to do what's right. Same arguement for the whole "who teaches your kid to behave" thing.

One of the reason we have so many "nanny laws" is because no one wants to take responsiblity for anything. Everyone wants to be thier kids best friend. Why do we have wellness policies? Because instead of cooking dinner, we pick up McD's on the way home from the 12 activities we have our kids in. And then, instead of sending our kids out to play, we sit them in front of the tv or video game.

And then people wonder why thier kid is fat.

Policy is policy. There has to be hard line, otherwise people will walk all over it. This instance is one of the most obsurd things I've heard in a while. But until we as a society get off our butts and start taking some responsibilities, decisions are going to be made for us. For our own good, or however they word it.

Perhaps candy was banned in this school, in that case, the kid knew the rule. Should candy have to be banned? Nope, we as parents should teach our kids healthy eating habits, and not depend on others to do it for us.

As long as we as a whole continue to take no responsiblity, other people are going to be taking it for us.

Get off your butts, people!