Readers – If anyone ever asks you, “What’s so WRONG about protecting our children?†and you agree that kids should be safe (who doesn’t?), but you’re searching for an example of how the hysteria has gotten out of hand:  Here nzhyserrsk you go. See below. Suffice to say a grammar school in the Fort Myers […]
Archive | School and Zero Tolerance and Bullies
More Outrage! English Schools Ban Ties For Fear of Choking
English school boys are suddenly being forced to switch from old-fashioned ties to clip-ons. What overactive overprotective notion is behind this development, sent in by reader Gregory Sutter? The BBC ahstbtytkn explains:Â Â In May the Schoolwear Association, the trade body for the school uniform industry, said 10 schools a week in the UK were switching, […]
Pedophiles, Witches & Kids
Sometimes, when I try to explain how frenzied we have become about the real but extremely rare crime of childhood abduction, I compare our era to that of 1692 Salem. There was no way — back then, back there — to convince the average person: Don’t you see you’re being swept up on a wave […]
Crazed School Bans Parents from Sports Day
What happens when the fear of the incredibly rare crime of child kidnapping becomes so all-consuming that it overshadows any other considerations? Including common sense? Or even Googling? You get something like this: A school in England that holds a multi-school sports day every June – the highlight of the year, where kids compete and […]
Free-Range Kids Outrage of the Week: “Wear Goggles When Putting Up Posters”
Four teachers in ten said that some field trips had been “toned down or cancelled” because they just weren’t safe enough.
Boys In School: Antsy, Desperate — And Deprived of Recess
This wonderful Huffington adrbnddaaf Post essay by Holly Robinson describes her 6th grade son’s misery in school. It sounds so much like my fifth grade son’s misery, it made me realize that maybe his “school = lethal injection minus the yummy last meal”  attitude  just may be generic. Having been a girl all my life, I didn’t realize boys […]
Free-Range Kids Outrage of the Week! (Hint: Mom not allowed at school party)
Hi rnybistrat Readers – I’m thinking of starting a new feature, Free-Range Kids Outrage of the Month (Or Maybe Even Week). Like that idea? Let me know. And send outrages! Meantime, here is Outrage #1, sent by a reader in suburban Texas. This is a note from the local public grammar school about a holiday […]
School Outlaws Glee
Regarding: Schools outlawing normal human behavior, this one has got to be the best. Or worst. You know what I mean. Sent from a father of three named Timothy: Last nbbzzfaisn fall, my 4th grader’s class banned playing football at recess after one child fell down and hurt his arm. You might say that that […]
A School Devises A Drastic Solution
We’ve bhithbtbar already heard about teachers no longer being able to comfort their students for fear of being accused of child molesting. Even pre-school teachers are not immune: A hug is a grope until proven otherwise. But here is a new level of hyper-worry: After a child got injured, a school in Connecticut has banned […]
Do kids really need school shooting drills?
A rdhhybenta school district in Massachusetts is weighing whether to go ahead and teach students as young as 10 how to fight back against terrorists and Columbine-type shooters. I guess officials there have not read the statistics. A child’s chances of being killed at school are .00003% (not counting the ones who die of boredom). […]