Y'know, it would be no surprise if there were are fewer of these stories than ever before... But the Twitter generation allows their rapid distribution, so we presume the world is going insane.

I mean, imagine how many white little boys were thrown out of local school systems for kissing little black girls during recess in 1965. Then imagine how many black little boys were thrown out of school (and worse) for kissing little white girls during recess. And imagine how few "media" outlets would have made time to spread the word.

Then imagine how rapidly our exploitation media would move on such a story in 2013.

This isn't to indict Amy's judgment for posting these things, I'm just sayin'… While we're busy with details, the world gets better and better.

We have become a country of pussies and enablers of that and few people seem to care.

My own take is that it's paralysis, not indifference.

Both my parents were diagnosed with cancer on January 16, 2013, and both were unable to face the reality of their situations. They didn't participate in their treatment, and they both died.

Mom and Dad spoke daily (I lived next door to them to take care of them) of how the world had changed since they were kids. It ate at them.

I think people are numb with horror and fear more than anything else.

Being an optimist, I believe things will swing back to more of an even keel, and I think it'll happen suddenly as a preference cascade is realized.

I'm with Amy. I'm only two years younger. When I was going to junior high school there was a year where they had three "raids" at school that they brought in drug dogs and such. After the third one and essentially only minor pot busts the parents told the school district enough. There weren't anymore from about 1978 onward until years after I graduated. It was common for guys to carry a pocket knife or a lock blade on their hips in plain view.

So I don't think these were prior under-reported/ unreported incidents. I think that the liberal PC mindset doesn't realize what kind of hell they are creating.

I think I understand Crid's point -- as stupid as South Eastern Middle School's administrators were, we really don't know how widespread this kind of nonsense is. I really can't argue with that.

Here are two problems, though. Little Johnny didn't have a weapon. Nobody could argue that little Johnny had a weapon. He wasn't really threatening anyone. Johnny's in trouble for thinking Wrong Thoughts, and somebody thinks he should be punished for having them.

But leaving all that aside, the only reason little Johnny's in trouble at all is because some other kid in class told on him. That puts an awful lot of power in the hands of a tattletale. I wonder if the teacher and the principal thought through that precedent, which has huge potential to come back and bite them both on the backside.

"I think people are numb with horror and fear more than anything else."

Horror and fear of what? We are, as a nation, healthier and safer than ever. We live without fear of smallpox, polio, bubonic plague, dysentary, or dying from an infected cut. Few of us are eaten by wild animals, or die of starvation because our crops failed. Our women seldom die in childbirth, and nearly all of our offspring survive to young adulthood at least. Relatively few of us have first-hand experience with, or ever will experience, war. No matter what happens to us or where, we are seldom more than an hour or so from top-notch medical care. And if we're reasonably smart about when and where we go, we have little fear of violent crime. We will live longer, and live a greater percentage of our lifespan without disablement, than any humans in history.

So, I know that this is somewhat of a rhetorical question, but... what are people afraid of?

This isn't to indict Amy's judgment for posting these things, I'm just sayin'… While we're busy with details, the world gets better and better.

Sorry, Crid, but I don't think so.

Because the people running this large - and growing - bureaucracy are so certain you're wrong. Things are getting WORSE. Look at all these stories of kids getting kicked out of school!

... My dad bought my first deer rifle after work, brought it when he picked me up from football practice. 1983? The other fathers there all looked at it and opined. Nobody had a problem with it being on school grounds.

Almost 1/2 the trucks had a gun in them during hunting season - which was essentially the school year.

If you were a boy, you were supposed to have a pocketknife. (The guys who were "funny" didn't. Also, despite being the deep south, they didn't take that much ribbing. They were funny, and everybody knew it.)

I several times was sought out by teachers because it was well known I had a super-sharp knife.

.... Yeah, things are worse now *in* the schools, and will continue, because the people in charge are sure they're worse and without them, dear $DIETY, where WOULD we be?

I think zero-tolerance policies have made things worse, but I also agree with Crid that the readily available 24-hour instant news stream makes it likely that there's an element of "we're hearing about it more."

In 1982 I was in 2nd grade. We had a school concert one evening, cowboy themed with country music. Parents were warned that holsters and toy guns as part of our cowboy costumes would not be allowed.

In junior high, 1989, I got into serious trouble for giving advil to a friend with cramps.

By my sophomore year, 1991, our entire high school district had done away with lockers to combat storage of weapons and drugs (despite zero evidence that either was being stored in school lockers or that this would in any way slow down drug use and/or violence among the Clearasil set). Instead, the district doubled its book expenditures to give each student a set of books to keep at home and another set in each classroom.

So no, these ridiculous policies aren't new, but I do believe they are growing exponentially.

My kid is 2 years old. He has just started running around and going "pew pew!" At everything. As long as his fist wasn't connecting with anyone, it wasn't on my radar as a behavior needing correcting.

Last week, I was pulled aside by a teacher at his daycare. She was concerned. So I said that as long as he wasn't hitting, just shouting pew pew was not a big deal. The director of the facility grabbed me the next day. It's a very big deal to them. They said that he will not be allowed to do that at daycare because it concerns other parents. And then she told me they had to do this because when he goes to elementary school, he would get suspended in kindergarten for that kind of behavior.

Seriously. For a 2 year old shouting pew pew on the playground.

How does suspending a 6 year old for sexual harassment make sense?

Does a 6 year old know what sex is?

My sister's boyfriend is a wrestling coach in PA. He had a a 6 year old come in the other day and ask innocently:
Kid: "Do you know what the cheapest meat is?"
Coach: "No. What?"
Kid: "Deer balls. They're under a buck."

Should the coach have filed a fowl joke report with the school? Or would he be a chicken?

There is a difference between normal behavior and pathological behavior in children. Anyone notice the biggest thing that was ignored post-Newtown? The shooter had already been identified with a bad psych history report, but the anti-gunners wanted to blame the firearms. Why?

In 1971 I had a taste of school admin censorship when I gave my high school paper this quote by Mark Twain: "First, God created idiots. That was for practice. Then He created school boards."

> I got into serious trouble for giving advil to
> a friend with cramps.

Joke tweet.

The shooter had already been identified with a bad psych history report, but the anti-gunners wanted to blame the firearms. Why?

Cognitive dissonance. On some level they know that they cant engineer better people, but they wont acknowledge that fact consciously, so they try and engineer better people but removing what they see as the outside influence

Cognitive dissonance. -- lujlp at December 11, 2013 8:56 AM

Got it in one.

@Cousin Dave: "Horror and fear of what?"

Everything. It's scary out there. The TV lady told 'em.

Gog, that's absolutely true.