(May 27) A federal judge in Louisiana this week heard oral arguments in the latest phase of cases showing again how public school establishments can be perniciously bonkers.
The Jefferson Parish School Board continues to stand firm, lacking both logic and decency, against the combined forces of the Louisiana Legislature, the state attorney general, state newspapers, the American Civil Liberties Union, the National Rifle Association, and just about every other sentient being. The board insists that COVID-related “distance learning” gives it the responsibility to enforce “zero tolerance” policies even within private homes, based on whatever a “virtual-lesson” camera might show within its field of vision.
By the board’s logic, if a student sets up his computer at a kitchen table and his mother left a butter knife on the counter, or if there’s a wine rack on the wall, or a prescription drug bottle on the shelf, the child should be harshly punished for having a banned object (weapon, alcohol, drugs) on what amounts to school grounds — because, well, dontcha understand? The computer camera turns a home into the equivalent of school property. Or something.
The current cases revolve around two instances of children recommended for expulsion, and eventually suspended for several days, because BB guns appeared within camera-shot of them while distance-learning. In the more widely reported case, 9-year-old Ka’Mauri Harrison’s little brother took a break from his online schooling last September, entered Ka’Mauri’s room, and accidentally knocked the “weapon” from its resting place. Ka’mauri thoughtfully moved the BB gun out of his brother’s reach, but he happened to place it where a portion was visible on screen. For that act of responsible behavior, young Harrison was penalized and then denied an appeal until the state Legislature quickly and unanimously passed a bill clarifying that, yes, parents do have the right to appeal such disciplinary actions….
[The rest of this column is at this link.]
