Does anyone else think this is just stupidity? Have we gone way overboard? Gotta love them libs.

Toy soldiers run afoul of school's weapons ban

Published - Jun 17 2010 10:15PM EST

By MICHELLE R. SMITH - Associated Press Writer

This image made from video provided by WPRI on Thursday, June 17, 2010 shows a hat created by 8-year-old David Morales to honor American troops, for an assignment to decorate a hat in his second-grade class at Tiogue School in Coventry, R.I. School officials told him he could not wear the cap he decorated, saying it violated the district's no-weapons policy because the toy soldiers were carrying tiny weapons.

PROVIDENCE, R.I.— Christan Morales said her son just wanted to honor American troops when he wore a hat to school decorated with an American flag and small plastic Army figures.

But the school banned the hat because it ran afoul of the district's zero-tolerance weapons policy. Why? The toy soldiers were carrying tiny guns.

"His teacher called and said it wasn't appropriate," Morales said.

Morales' 8-year-old son, David, had been assigned to make a hat for the day when his second-grade class would meet their pen pals from another school. She and her son came up with an idea to add patriotic decorations to a camouflage hat.

Earlier this week, after the hat was banned, the principal at the Tiogue School in Coventry told the family that the hat would be fine if David replaced the Army men holding weapons with ones that didn't have any, according to Superintendent Kenneth R. Di Pietro.

But, Morales said, the family had only one Army figure without a weapon (he was carrying binoculars), so David wore a plain baseball cap on the day of the pen pal meeting.

"Nothing was being done to limit patriotism, creativity, other than find an alternative to a weapon," Di Pietro said.

The district does not allow images of weapons or drugs on clothing. For example, a student would not be permitted to wear a shirt with a picture of a marijuana leaf on it, the superintendent said.

The principal "wasn't denying the patriotism," he said. "That just is the wrong and unfair image of one of our finest principals."

[Parallax]

It's called going from the sublime to the ridiculous.

[shooz]

Jeez, and I thought the law and order types called a rule a rule and a law a law.
Only works sometimes eh?

[Parallax]

Jeez, and I thought the law and order types called a rule a rule and a law a law.
Only works sometimes eh?

That doesn't mean that the people who enacted the law aren't complete morons for doing so.

[apisto]

I universally despise zero tolerance policies. Be it HR directors, school principals, or whatever, I would like to think they are there to display judgement. If they are not going to apply rational judgement to situations that arise in their area of responsibility, then what are they there for?

[MRRiley]

How ridiculous can things get?

[seacapt]

Ya know I've been looking for a box of little multi colored millitary services persons with figures to include the company cook (without a chef's knife of course) , the public relations officer and the Generals personal assistant . Just can't seem to find them anywhere these days. Go figure!

---------- Post added 06-18-2010 at 07:57 PM ----------

How ridiculous can things get?

Depends on how most of our generation raised their kids!

[subeeds]

It's ridiculous. However, I did notice it say that he couldn't worn a t-shirt with a gun (or drugs) on it either, so at least they are consistent in their stupidity. I'm glad I'm not a kid in this age of political correctness.

The day after Columbine, my son wore all black clothes to middle school. Not through choice, but because the washer was broken and that was all he had that was clean. I got a call from the school telling me how inappropriate his wearing black was and they didn't want to encourage things like that. I gave them an earful about my kid in black who had the 2nd highest GPA in the place.

[MRRiley]

Ya know I've been looking for a box of little multi colored millitary services persons with figures to include the company cook (without a chef's knife of course) , the public relations officer and the Generals personal assistant . Just can't seem to find them anywhere these days. Go figure!

---------- Post added 06-18-2010 at 07:57 PM ----------


Depends on how most of our generation raised their kids!

Well, hopefully, our kids will be smarter and have more common sense than many of our generation... regardless of how stupid/bigoted/scared their parents are.

[jeffkrol]

Does anyone else think this is just stupidity? Have we gone way overboard? Gotta love them libs.

Yep we now got the ACLU attacking "them libs"........
American Civil Liberties Union
The Associated Press: RI boy who made banned toy soldier hat gets medal

the Rhode Island chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union said it sent a letter to Coventry Superintendent Kenneth DiPietro saying the school's policy was an unconstitutional violation of students' free speech. It called on the district to revise the policy.

Actually mabe it's time we honored our non-combative ranks of soldiers... seems they deserve it.. as do the others.

[Oldschool]

Well, it looks like sanity was restored.

RI school to reverse ban on boy's toy soldier hat - U.S. news- msnbc.com

[Ratmagiclady]

It seems to me this is hardly as 'ridiculous' as the headline portrays.If the policy is 'No images of weapons,' then that's what that is.

Little images of armed soldiers... Are just that. Violent imagery.

So there it is, whatever you think of the policy.

[Artesian]

Nanny State. Pretty sickening.
A

[shooz]

Well, you know how it is.
Rules are rules.
Sometimes, for some people, in some circumstances.