The real danger
in our schools.

There was Columbine. There was Virginia Tech. There have been others. People died simply because they were seeking an education at a time and place where some deranged person(s) struck out with deadly force.

Bodily harm is always a terrible thing. But another kind of harm is being inflicted in our schools.

At this moment, a six-year-old Delaware boy is both the threat and the victim. Think of it. This little boy is apparently being reared as a modern girly-boy by loving parents who sometimes send him to school wearing a tie. Thankfully my parents never did that to me during my first few days of elementary school. That was during the depression when farm boys came to school in bib overalls, homemade shirts and bare feet. If a boy had shown up in a tie, some kid may have strangled him with it.

But that attire is what this Delaware boy knew. Then there came a transformative event in his life... he became a Cub Scout! Suddenly he was thrust into the world boys love... learning about trees and bugs and birds. And getting the attire to match. A real Cub Scout uniform! Having once been a small boy, I can tell you he must have been euphoric.

Then, he came into possession of a thing that must surely have originated in boy heaven... a camping tool, akin to a Swiss Army knife, that consisted of a knife, a fork and a spoon, that folded up into a pocket full of treasure.

He surely ate a meal or two at home using this wondrous new thing. Since cafeterias are such an important part of modern schools, it follows that thinking about school must encompass thoughts of food. Logic tells you that he must have been bursting with pride at the thought of taking his new Cub Scout tableware to school, and being the only kid eating his lunch with such a modern thing.

Nope. It didn't work out that way. A teacher discovered his treasure, and he is being severely punished for bringing a "weapon" to school.

I am reminded of an incident involving my youngest son, when he was about nine years old. I was on a business trip to Washington. My wife and son were to join me for a little vacation time after my meetings concluded. Somewhere, my son had acquired a paper weight that had been fabricated from a real 50-caliber machine gun bullet. There were no explosives in the thing, but it certainly looked threatening. As they checked in at the airport, he played with his new toy. The airline person asked "What is that?". He told her: "A machine gun bullet!" My wife, of course, explained that it was really just a paper weight.

Being infinitely more intelligent than the officials at the Delaware elementary school, the airline person instructed my wife, "Okay, Mom, you take charge of this thing. Put it in your purse and keep it there as long are you are in the airport or on the plane."

The Delaware school official could have gently told the small boy, "The school has very strict rules about carrying a knife. Since your camping utensil includes a knife, I will have to take it and call your Mom or Dad to come to the school to pick it up. I'll bet an arm that the boy would have been puzzled, but would have instantly yielded to authority.

But, then, that would have required a small amount of common sense, something in short supply today. So, this small boy is sentenced to "Reform School", an experience which will leave who knows what permanent scars.