More zero tolerance fun in our government schools
From the Rocky Mountain State:
Adams School District 50 is defending its decision to punish a third grader for sniffing a Sharpie marker.
Eight-year-old Eathan Harris was originally suspended from Harris Park Elementary School for three days. Principal Chris Benisch reduced the suspension to one day after complaints from Harris’ parents.
Harris used a black Sharpie marker to color a small area on the sleeve of his sweatshirt. A teacher sent him to the principal when she noticed him smelling the marker and his clothing.
…
“This is really, really, seriously dangerous,” Benisch said.
In his letter suspending the child, Benisch wrote that smelling the marker fumes could cause the boy to “become intoxicated.”
One small problem with Benisch’s claims: he’s wrong.
A toxicologist with the Rocky Mountain Poison Control Center says that claim is nearly impossible.
Dr. Eric Lavonas says non-toxic markers like Sharpies, while pungent-smelling, cannot be used to get high.
“I don’t know whether it would be possible for a real overachiever to figure out a way to get high off them,” Lavonas said. “But in regular use, it’s just not something that’s going to happen.”
“If you went to Costco and bought 50 bags of Sharpies and did something to them, maybe there’s a way to get creative and make it happen,” Lavonas said.
But don’t worry, the schools aren’t going to let a little reality faze them.
Despite the medical evidence, Benisch promised to draw an even clearer line on markers.
“We’ve purged every permanent marker there is in this building,” he said.
He’ll probably win administrator of the year.
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April 8th, 2008 at 9:51 pm
I guess the big Laser Printer Conspiracy used similar thinking to convince school mimeograph handouts were a gateway drug.
April 10th, 2008 at 5:36 am
[...] Flashpoint: More zero tolerance fun in our government schools [...]
April 10th, 2008 at 11:43 pm
Boy, I can just imagine the pissed-offed-ness of the teachers whose Sharpies were confiscated. Those things come in like a million colors now!
Do these administrators, who like generals at the front lines are forced to make snap judgments with lightening speed, not realize that when they make a call like this, the entire country will be laughing at them the following day? Is this really how they want to put Adams School District 50 on the map?