Yet more Zero Tolerance Idiocy

Say Uncle & Bruce reported yet another example of Zero Tolerance Policy idiocy. A child was suspended for 3 days because he was writing with a pen that had a Glock logo on it in Georgia. Yes that is right - suspended for having the name Glock written on a pen. What exactly does that school administrator have against a perfectly nice Austrian family name? The boy was suspended for 3 days on Friday Jan 18th, 2008 (I took the liberty of correcting a few spelling errors):

. . . So, my phone rings Friday afternoon. It's the vice principal from my son's school saying that he needs to discuss a serious situation about my son. When I asked him what was going on, he tells me that a pen bearing a Glock logo is forbidden by school policy and that I need to come and pick up my son because there is a mandatory 3 day suspension because of the violation. Apparently, one of my son's teachers saw him writing with the pen during an assignment.

While I have the VP on the telephone, I retrieve my son's student handbook. Flipping though it, I see that weapons, replica weapons, pictures of weapons, and weapon images on keychains or other items are forbidden. The pen I had given him was one I picked up at a law enforcement firearms competition last year - which bore only the Glock logo, but not an image or rendition of a firearm. Nowhere does it say that a firearm company logo is restricted by school policy. I explain this to the VP.

So, the VP gets his handbook and looks through it. He was in agreement that the pen did not directly violate the policy, but that the Glock name was commonly known to be a firearm and therefore it technically was in violation . . .

After the boy, his father, and their attorney met with the Superintendent on Tuesday Jan 22nd, the suspension was overturned:

Well, the verdict is in...

I arrived at the superintendent's office at about 8:45am. He was already in his office and readily met with my Uncle Bill (my attorney), my son, and myself. He seemed to be rather nice and agreed that the suspension was uncalled for because the pen was not a physical or graphic representation of a weapon. He admitted that it was a bad judgment call on the VPs part which should have been thought over a little more; especially since my son does not have a disciplinary record. He apologized for the problem and told us that my son could return to school and that the disciplinary would be removed.

I took my son to school and met with the VP. This guy is about 30 years old and looks like a poster child for gay bathhouses. He did apologize lightly, but did not seem overly happy about it. Apparently the superintendent called him about 5am this morning and told him to 'make it right'. Our meeting very short. The VP ran off and left us with a receptionist. She apologized; returned the pen and gave us the disciplinary that removed from his record. I made sure by looking in his record folder while in the office that it was gone. I have all three copies of it now (white, yellow, and pink) - so there is not another copy of it in existence.

I returned the Glock pen to my son to use until it dies. At which point the pen becomes inoperable, I will be giving him another Glock pen. As far as I am concerned, he can use Glock pens forever . . .

As many have said, Zero Tolerance=Zero Thought

Update: Some have asked where to get their own glock pen that they can send to school with their children. This is actually a better pen than the promotional pen that they give away at events, I plan to order one myself.