“Daniel McClaine Jr., a freshman at Poston Butte High School, said he saved the picture as his desktop background on his school-issued computer.” And an, er, educator ratted him out, resulting in the Florence, AZ kid’s suspension. Turns out the weaponized wallpaper was deemed to have violated the school’s policy against “sending or displaying offensive messages or pictures” and the freshman’s suspension. As written, the policy seems to leave more than a little wiggle room, n’est-ce pas? . . .
According to abc15.com,
McClaine said he read the guidelines but does not consider the picture threatening to anyone.
What the young skull full of mush is yet to learn, though, is that when you’re dealing with zero tolerance government automatons, ‘wiggle room’ isn’t on their list of pre-approved options. It’s much easier to boot a kid than make a judgement call that might be criticized later. Thought experiment: would PBHS’s administrators have come down on young Master McClaine as hard if he’d had this pic on his school-issued screen?
Here’s the school’s statement on the incident:
Although we cannot specifically discuss student discipline, we can certainly agree that violence in schools is a sensitive and timely issue. Students, parents and staff are on edge, and the daily news delivers more reasons for caution. All of us must work together to protect our kids and to cultivate an environment that is conducive to learning.
Need more be said?