Someone is

a moron.

I don't know

if that someone is an employee of the Fayette County School System, since

all official reports concerning last week's arrest of Jamie Gilman at

Fayette County High School have the school system claiming they only did

as they were required by Georgia law in reporting the presence of "weapons"

in the back of Gilman's pickup truck. School officials may very well have

followed their procedures to the letter.

I don't know

if that someone is with the local police, who actually arrested Gilman.

School officials said they did not request an arrest warrant, and police

may have simply been following state law also. They're not saying.

So that would

leave the architects of the insane "zero tolerance" policies

at Georgia public schools. When it comes to determining who the actual

morons are, my money's on these clowns.

In a nutshell,

this policy has produced scores of heartbroken students and furious parents;

hundreds of hard-working, well-educated teachers and administrators who

have had their decision-making abilities taken away; and thousands of

students across the state who are not being taught how to think and take

responsibility for their actions.

As for Jamie

Gilman, he has lost 10 days of school with no possibility of ever getting

it back. Depending upon the effect his suspension has on his grades, it

could cost him an entire year of his life, or at least an entire summer,

if he were forced to repeat any classes. Then there are the criminal charges

pending against him, not to mention the fact that he spent a night in

the Fayette County Jail. That harrowing experience can never be remedied.

Sadly, Gilman's

case is far from the exception in Georgia. The Associated Press reported

that a high school senior in Lee County was expelled April 30, three weeks

before graduation, when officials found two steak knives in his

pickup truck. "We're just following state law," the superintendent

said. If I were in his position and that were all I could say, I'd be

seriously considering other employment. How humiliating it must be for

a county's top educator to have to face the media after a situation like

this, regardless of whose fault it is.

If we've come

to the point in this state where we cannot protect our children without

this kind of idiocy, then it's time to lock ourselves in our homes and

pull the covers over our heads.

According to

the Fayette County School System's student conduct code, students are

prohibited from possessing weapons or "any object which can be reasonably

considered a weapon" on school property. Those of you who find that

statute completely logical need to sit up and pay attention for a minute

while we run down a partial list of what that could include.

Gasoline.

Every gallon in every vehicle on campus is deadly, whether inhaled

or ignited. All it takes is one match and you have a disaster on your

hands. Is there an easier way for a disgruntled student to cause trouble

than to light up a car in the parking lot and start a chain reaction?

Tire tools.

I wonder how many people have been killed and maimed by those over the

years. All you have to do is hold one in your hand for a few seconds and

its deadly potential is pretty clear.

Cars and

trucks. Perhaps the most obvious culprit is the vehicle itself. If

we don't want anyone going nuts and running over someone, we'd better

keep all of them off campus and let the kids walk or ride the bus.

Pencils

and pens. If this makes you laugh, consider the case reported in Florida

the day after Gilman's arrest, where a seven-year-old stabbed four classmates

allegedly because he rejected his teacher's suggestion that he share his

crayons.

I haven't even

mentioned the various tools found in girls' (and possibly boys') makeup

bags that get you thrown off commercial airliners these days. Are you

going completely out of your mind yet? Some of our state educators are.

This thing

is spiraling hopelessly out of control, and I don't know if it can ever

get back on track. Until this policy and others like it are eliminated,

we can expect a generation of students to leave our educational system

with very little knowledge of what it is like to actually think for themselves

and be responsible. Sounds like a ready-made army of government workers.

[Monroe Roark

can be reached at [email protected].]

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