Monday, October 25, 2004

Zero Tolerance Watch

AIRHEADS: Two girls at Greenfield Junior High School in Gilbert, Ariz., were setting up the decorations for a school dance and got the idea of inhaling the helium they were using to fill balloons to hear themselves "talk funny." Principal Jill Bowers noted the school district's policy that prohibits the "non-medical use of drugs" also includes inhaled drugs, and suspended the girls for five days. "If it's such a dangerous substance," complained one of the girls' fathers, "why weren't they supervised? I think they went a little bit overboard and took the zero-tolerance policy to the extreme." Bowers relented, reducing the suspensions to one day. (Arizona Republic) ...Whew! Now they'll be able to squeak by the seventh grade.

I think if I'd been a parent in that situation, I might have sued the school for child endangerment for leaving minors unsupervised around dangerous materials. If the school district doesn't come to its senses, then it had jolly well better treat helium as if it believed its own reasoning.

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