Tuesday, December 26, 2006

I love stories like this, LXXXI

Kids are not the most precious thing in the government-funded compulsory attendance matriculation centers. If you doubt that, ask yourself why this kid was expelled:
Dec 13, 2006 11:17 pm US/Central

Teen Expelled From School For Turning In Found Gun

Plainfield Student's Parents Say The Punishment Doesn't Make Sense

Dana Kozlov

(CBS) PLAINFIELD, Ill. A 13-year-old Plainfield boy and his parents are stunned and outraged after the teen found a gun in school and turned it in to authorities, who then expelled him.

CBS 2's Dana Kozlov reports Ryan Morgan's parents and supporters attended the school board meeting Wednesday evening to try to fight the expulsion. They believe the punishment, and the subsequent alternative school option, are not the proper responses to a mistake made by a teenage boy.

Ryan Morgan, 13, says he pocketed a pellet gun he and a friend found in their school's bathroom to keep people safe. Morgan's mother says a short time later Morgan gave the gun to the Troy Middle School assistant principal.

"I told him maybe that wasn't the best decision, to remove that gun, but it did lead to you finding the culprit, he was arrested and to put my son in alternative school -- he has no behavior problems," Audrey Morgan, Ryan's mother, said.

The Morgans say there was no reasoning with the principal or with the school superintendent.

"He said, 'The board can give your son full two-year expulsion, I'm asking you not to go before them,'" Audrey Morgan said.

They went anyway, saying they had nothing to lose, only to see the meeting minutes already recommend expulsion.

Roy Morgan says he can't accept that, but accepts his son's decision.

"He said 'I'm going to turn this in' and you know what, I commend my son for making that decision. It was the right decision," he said.

School board officials issued a statement Wednesday night saying due to confidentiality reasons they can't discuss the specifics of this case, but that "purposeful possession of weapons is a serious offense and deserves careful consideration by the administration and the school board."

Can you tell what's most important here? It's compliance with the rule; the rule that a child should not touch a gun ("purposeful possession") but should report it to an adult. So a kid breaks the rule in order to turn in the gun in person and is rewarded with expulsion and shunning by the school board.

4 comments:

Brian Dunbar said...

All this over ... a pellet gun.

Perhaps they were afraid he'd shoot his eye out.

You'll excuse me - I need to go confiscate my children's new pellet guns before they massacre each other.

RobC said...

Some officials obtuseness never fails to amaze me.
Common sense is sorely lacking in this case.

Steve Erbach said...

Brian,

» Perhaps they were afraid he'd shoot his eye out. «

To be fair, I suppose that somebody in the administration might have thought something along those lines. But then, not to be fair, I remember Pournelle's Iron Law of Bureaucracy: "In any bureaucratic organization there will be two kinds of people: those who work to further the actual goals of the organization, and those who work for the organization itself. Examples in education would be teachers who work and sacrifice to teach children, vs. union representative who work to protect any teacher including the most incompetent. In all cases, the second type of person will always gain control of the organization, and will always write the rules under which the organization functions."

Steve Erbach
The Town Crank

Steve Erbach said...

Rob,

Yes, indeed. After posting 80 of these stories one would think that one would become jaded. Not so.

Steve Erbach
The Town Crank

P.S., I noticed from your Blogger profile that you have six blogs?! Where do you find the time to keep up with them all?