Students Banned From Bringing Pencils To School 426
mernilio writes "According to UPI: 'A Massachusetts school district superintendent said a memo banning sixth graders from carrying pencils was written without district approval. North Brookfield School District interim Superintendent Gordon Noseworthy said Wendy Scott, one of two sixth-grade teachers at North Brookfield Elementary School, did not get approval from administrators before sending the memo to all sixth-grade parents, the Worcester Telegram & Gazette reported Thursday. The memo said students would no longer be allowed to bring writing implements to school. It said pencils would be provided for students in class and any students caught with pencils or pens after Nov. 15 would face disciplinary action for having materials 'to build weapons.'"
Fear mongering 101 (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Fear mongering 101 (Score:4, Interesting)
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I'm not sure a sixth-grader has the arm strength required for such a feat.
I managed to break/take apart just about anything at that age (and still do). Don't underestimate them.
Re:Fear mongering 101 (Score:4, Funny)
I was able to completely dismantle a cot while still being young enough to actually sleep in it.
Same here. (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Same here. (Score:5, Funny)
That's nothing.
At 8.5 months gestation I took a deep breath and self-delivered.
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I initially read your post as "dismantle a cat"
until I read the "being young enough to actually sleep in it" did I realize I was in error.
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I initially read your post as "dismantle a cat"
until I read the "being young enough to actually sleep in it" did I realize I was in error.
Maybe it was a large cat and an ill-advised attempt to recreate the Tauntaun scene.
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No point in take the leg off a chair, just use the entire chair as a weapon.
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Actually, in plenty of schools that's exactly what they will do [cdc.gov].
Welcome to the days where school has become nothing but a crappy day-care replacement.
No, I'm serious. In most public schools, the purpose is not for the kids to learn. The purpose is to pay substandard wages to a bunch of idiots who were too dumb to realize what they were really getting into, give them zero support and tools to actually enforce classroom discipline, and then tell them to just keep the kids in the building between the hours of
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And when little Roshanjam, the 9th son of Shaniqua who has 8 other half-brothers and no daddy for any of them, gets into fights and gangs and knifes people and someone actually hauls him in, there she is crying and screaming "racism" and unwilling to accept that no, her kid is a criminal little punk who has his head straight up his own ass.
and
and in the meantime the deadbeat shithead parents are busy getting a lawyer and spinning sob stories to the media about how their "good little angel" is getting a bad rap because of the "racist teacher who obviously hates them."
How is he telling the truth when the poster has to create completely bullshit scenarios to prop up his argument? Unless he actually knows of a little Roshanjam, who is the 9th son of Shaniqua who has 8 other half-brothers and no daddy for any of them? Heck, the entire post was made up of hypothetical examples. Why not use a real life example, there are plenty out there.
It's trolling when he has to pull completely hypothetical situations out of his ass to prop up an argument, which shows that he's more in
Re:Fear mongering 101 (Score:5, Interesting)
What I'm curious about though, is why the teacher felt this memo was necessary in the first place; TFA doesn't mention this.
When I was in grade school, we used to fling sharpened pencils like crossbow bolts, using several rubber bands for higher tension. It wasn't uncommon to draw blood from these toys... and there would be quite a firefight whenever the teacher turned his or her back toward the class to write on the board. So, I think that's why the summary mentions "materials to build weapons," but it's still a stupid idea to ban pencils.
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We used bent over paper clips and rubber bands to see how many we could get stuck in the ceiling... and other things.
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In reception class (age 5) we wrote with those thick (1cm) artists pencils.
On the first day of Year 1, age 5-and-a-bit-more, the teacher explained that since we were now big boys and girls we could write with thin pencils, and put a box on every desk. The boy opposite me took one, stood up, walked round to me, and stuck it up my nose. I remember having a bad nosebleed, but fortunately nothing worse. The boy was forced to use a thick pencil for some time.
This has nothing to do with personal pencils or sixth
Re:Fear mongering 101 (Score:4, Interesting)
If you take apart the cheap-ass Bic mechanical pencils, use a rubber band in a slit in the eraser and then wrapped to the pencil clip, you have yourself a pocket "gun". [instructables.com]
I'm betting the teacher was tired of that.
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Mr. Malda!
Mr. Malda!
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Bic pens make the perfect blow gun. The dart is created with nothing more than a sewing pin and thread. Use a dot of glue if you want the thread "features" to stay attached for multiple uses.
This works well enough to launch a dart roughly 15-20 feet, hard enough to stick in black boards. Obviously it can stick in people and poses a serious risk to eyes!
Erasers make the perfect place to stow those darts while not in use.
Extreme caution should be used when shooting ceiling tiles as a miss may result in the po
Re:Fear mongering 101 (Score:5, Funny)
What I'm curious about though, is why the teacher felt this memo was necessary in the first place; TFA doesn't mention this.
Isn't it obvious, they're worried about weapons. If they bring in pencils they have graphite. All they need to do is purify uranium and they can use this to moderate an atomic pile. Next thing they will have weapons-grade plutonium.
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Good job at helping Teh Terrists, freedom-hater!
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Yellowcake, also known as Twinkies.
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Heh, my wife got in trouble for sending home a similar "unauthorized memo", saying that if they felt the gang violence at school was too dangerous, they should stay home.
This was after several kids got knives and guns pulled on them by the library... and somewhat after some gangstas pulled a fire alarm to distract administration while they had a little gangwar to beat up some kids behind the school. She went to the administration first, a few days later the security guy gives the kids a self-defense semina
Re:Arm Strength (Score:2)
Correction - some 20 Caveman-Build 6th graders have the strength for this. There's a reason they pwned recess.
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My assumption is that she had an issue in her class with students using pencils in ways that were unexpected by the manufacturers. Remembering fondly my middle school years, I have no doubt this is the case. Hell, remembering my high school years, I have no doubt this is the case. My classmates found all sorts of unique "uses" for writing implements and other school supplies.
PS. Can we stop linking to articles which include sentences such as "Wendy is too uptight, one night with me she will loosen up, and s
Re:Fear mongering 101 (Score:4, Interesting)
As Boortz has said, sending your children to a government school in the U.S. is tantamount to child abuse.
... and the public-educated pupils from American schools are the clever ones. Private schools in America appear to just exist to take money from parents, and store the children during the day.
A while ago I used to help out with an ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) class - we had American exchange students. Students who had made their way to university from state schools in the US read and wrote at about the equivalent of a UK 14- to 15-year-old. Students from a private school background were essentially retarded. They managed to read at a UK high-school level with some encouragement, and struggled to write at that level.
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ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages)
Strangely enough, we had American exchange students in because there was no "Remedial English" class for university students. These were ostensibly English-speaking (well, they could *speak* English, they just couldn't read or write it) students from the US - English was supposedly their first language.
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Like edawstwin above, I attended both public and private schools in the U.S. - in fact, three of each.
While there is truth to the assertion that some private schools are much better than others, this doesn't take into account how bad many government schools are. I attended one private school that is one of the best in the United States, and another which was the Baptist-run type referred to, with underqualified teachers. Despite this handicap, that Baptist school still performed better than the local go
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Can't we all just get along.
Re:Fear mongering 101 (Score:4, Funny)
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We obviously just need TSA screeners at the entrance to every classroom and hallway performing Freedom Fondling to make sure no weapons get passed around.
Too complicated. (Score:2)
Why take the trouble to break off a leg when using the whole chair is almost as effective? Even most student desks nowadays are light enough to be effective, if rather awkward, weapons.
But this is little more than the next logical step proceeding forward from a paralyzing, irrational fear of weapons and conflict.
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You know, I remember having conversations exactly like this in sixth grade. "Anything can be a weapon! Heck, my pencil could be a weapon!"
I'm assuming the teacher overheard such a conversation, and decided to react in the classic way that only a buffoon can.
Re:Fear mongering 101 (Score:5, Insightful)
I rememeber a classmate bringing a (sharp) sword to class to show off to his friends. No one made a stink about it, becasue he was unlikely to shoot anyone with it. We just weren't scared back then. There was occasional serious violence, which was briefly interesting, but we just went on with life.
When did everyone become so afraid of everything?
Re:Fear mongering 101 (Score:5, Interesting)
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Said just like someone who has never been shot with a sword.
Re:Fear mongering 101 (Score:4, Insightful)
That's the point, isn't it? People intending violence brought guns - pistols usually purchased the night before for $50, and very dangerous to the person standing next to your target. We had 4 shootings while I was in high school. Three were escalations from girlfriend "stolen" -> fist fight -> gunshot (and in all three, if was a person standing next to the intented victim who left in a ambulance). One was the French teacher getting shot in class (I remember being completely unsurprised by that, so I guess she wasn't well liked).
We, students and teachers alike, understood that the people not the weapons were the danger, and someone bringing his Ninja Toys to class was no threat to anything beyond his own dignity.
As the old saying goes: (Score:5, Funny)
The pen is mightier than the sword.
Re:As the old saying goes: (Score:5, Funny)
Sean Connery: I've got to ask you about the Penis Mightier.
Alex Trebek: What? No. No, no, that is The Pen is Mightier.
Sean Connery: Gussy it up however you want, Trebek. What matters is does it work? Will it really mighty my penis, man?
Alex Trebek: It's not a product, Mr. Connery.
Sean Connery: Because I've ordered devices like that before - wasted a pretty penny, I don't mind telling you. And if The Penis Mightier works, I'll order a dozen.
Alex Trebek: It's not a Penis Mightier, Mr. Connery. There's no such thing!
Nicholas Cage: Wait, wait, wait.. are you selling Penis Mightiers?
Alex Trebek: No! No, I'm not.
Sean Connery: Well, you're sitting on a gold mine, Trebek!
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Ohhh! 'pen' '__' 'is'. Now I get it.
Wrong headline (Score:5, Insightful)
Maybe it's me, but isn't the proper headline "Students NOT banned from bringing pencils to school"?
After all, the district said that the teacher sent the memo without permission of the superintendent and that it did not reflect district policy. So we got an overzealous and whacked out teacher, which is certainly not news.
Re:Wrong headline (Score:5, Funny)
All of this could have been avoided if we had just taken this warning seriously and immediately banned all sharp writing implements from schools. All pencils and pens should be replaced with nice blunt magic markers. For math classes or other times when frequent erasing is needed, they can use an Etch-a-Sketch (tm). This seems like a minor sacrifice to ensure the safety of our children.
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I have some graphite permanently lodged under my skin. It's been there since I was 15. In a pretty relaxed lesson someone on the other side of the room said "catch, Xaxa". I didn't catch it very well, and the over-sharpened tip hit my hand. I couldn't get the graphite out then, let alone now.
I've assumed it's not dangerous.
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graphite is just very stable carbon. biologically neutral. Not sure about any additives
TSA? (Score:2)
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Will someone think of the children and close our schools!
Actually, you raise a good point. Please, someone think of the children. Seriously. It's sad that their education is in the hands of people who seek to not only indoctrinate them and teach them multitudes of useless information that they'll quickly forget since they don't use.
Think of their education!
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Not like homeschooling is a better option, where a parent is free to substitute their own "facts," or leave out certain things completely, crippling the child when they attempt to do anything requiring that knowledge, but the true danger of home schooling is the lack of socialization with people of differing backgrounds, leading to an insular world view that assumes everyone is the same, and an inability to cope with society at large.
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So we got an overzealous and whacked out teacher, which is certainly not news.
That is what Slashdot is all about . . . good, clean, wholesome fun for the family . . . let's get outraged at news, that isn't news!
First stab! (Score:4, Funny)
Promotion ! (Score:3, Insightful)
A warm welcome to the future head of TSA.
Trustworthy (Score:4, Insightful)
Yeah, THIS site is a respectable, trustworthy source of news.
Ok, seriously (Score:2)
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It's not the district, it's not the administrators, it's just one teacher who sent it off without permission. Let's not judge all Americans by a singular nutcase.
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If only this were a singular case of nuttery in this profession.
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Let's not judge all Americans by a singular nutcase.
But that's how they judge us!
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Not exactly. A big percentage of people (everywhere) is stupid. Don't single out americans.
Keeping Children Safe (Score:2)
Hog Tie and Gag (Score:2)
The Pencil is mightier than the Sword (Score:2)
Drop that Ticongeroga number two! (Score:2)
Sure why not when I could just break a chair leg off and bludgeon someone.
You let your pupils sit!, in chairs?!?!? When I was a schoolboy, our classroom was in a paper bag, by the side of the road . . . etc.
Airport? (Score:2)
Sometimes, the line between a school and an airport with a looming terror phobia is paper thin.
OK, its more than 10 years ago ... (Score:2)
that I lived in the US, but have you completely lost your minds ? Have you become so paranoid that kids with pencils are a threat ?
Imagine, 1000 kids, each with 10-20 pencils ... OMG A weapon of mass destruction :)
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Get to the root of the problem ... (Score:2)
... and ban students from schools. But then hordes of them will be hanging out on the streets, sharpening their pencils, and finding some trouble to get themselves into . . .
Education, by idiots. (Score:2)
Yet another FINE example of intellectually stunted individuals being put in a position of educating our children.
And another FINE example of said intellectual amoeba eschewing proper channels, or even common sense in implementing something that's utterly pointless and only generates an aura of fear and distrust in what is, ostensibly, an educational institution.
I suppose swords are fine then ... (Score:2)
I herd the TSA offered to install body scanners (Score:2)
I herd the TSA has offered the school to install full body scanners at the gates. Apparently a class room was almost hijacked the other week by six year old terrorists carrying sticks of grey plasticine and safety scissors.
People love to be outraged. (Score:5, Informative)
So much so that they'd rather take some dudgeon mongering website's word for what happened than to google the original sources and find out this is a non-story. Well, I don't mind being wet blanket, so I did it for you.
If you must know, a couple of sixth grade teachers got fed up with students playing with toy pens, then losing them and disrupting the class looking for them. So they decided to ban student owned writing instruments altogether, but rather than come right out and tell parents that their kids are badly behaved, they used a pen modified by one of the students to shoot spitballs as an excuse for the ban. Since using a writing instrument as a "weapon" conjures images of students stabbing each other in the eye with a pencil, that naturally garnered a lot more attention than the teachers expected. The acting superintendent stepped in, reversed the policy and wrote a memo explaining everything and suggesting everybody calm down.
But of course the story of a couple of beleaguered teachers being too timid to tell parents they'd raised a mob of brats isn't as much fun for people who like to complain about the nanny state.
Re:People love to be outraged. (Score:4, Insightful)
I worked in a high school for 2 years. Parents don't want to hear that they're kids are brats. They want any evidence they can get to rationalize the myth that poor teachers are the problem with our education system. One quick story...
The junior class at the school was turning into a bunch of fuck-ups. Poor academics, drugs, mediocre sports performance, etc. So, the principal who was a really good guy calls an assembly, sends *ALL* the teachers out except for the VP and has a "man-to-man" talk with the whole junior class. He basically told them they were screwing up their lives and needed to straighten up before they've ruined their opportunity there. Well, all the kids run home and tell exaggerated...scratch that flat out lies about what he said to them. Saying he called them worthless, stupid, etc. This caused an uproar with all the parents bitching to the administration for daring to suggest that their sweet little babies could be anything short of Sainthood-candidates. I'd been working at the school for a while at this point and I knew the deal, and I was a computer lab tech. Kids would come in all the time to hang out during breaks. So, I'd get the lowdown from them and surreptitiously steer them into telling me *exactly* what he said. Of course, it was quite different from the cry baby story they all ran home and told mommy and daddy. And, that's our education system in microcosm. Parents sending less disciplined children to school to be simultaneously educated and parented because so many of them aren't getting the job done at home.
Coincidentally, about 10 years later I found out a friend had attended that school when I struck up a conversation with her mother. Just to reinforce the point, her daughters were habitual skippers (though they did get their acts together). But, she blamed the principal when he threatened police action (I never knew you could be charged with this!) if she didn't get her girls to start coming to classes. Kind of sad to hear her mother saying this, because her daughter was really hot too (really turned me off on the girl after seeing that side of her family).
Are they going be like banks and chain pens to des (Score:2)
Are they going be like banks and chain pens to desk's?
whats next no forks or spoons in the lunch room?
EVEN PEOPLE IN PRISON GET PENS AND PENCILS.
Built lots of pencil-based weapons (Score:2)
Take a couple rulers, one with that groove in the middle and the holes. Add some braided rubber bands and a firing mechanism using the holes, and you have a quite dangerous pencil crossbow.
Fine, I don't need a stinking pencil (Score:2)
Who writes in pencil in sixth grade anyway. I recommend they all bring in a pen. [ammoland.com] }B^>
D@mn, people.
--
Toro
Johnny is staying home from school today principal, he told me, "My body is a weapon."
Yay! (Score:2)
I have to admit there's a "dark passenger" part of me that loves this shit, and thinks the people of this country deserve every damned scan, grope and pencil ban that the government can dump on them. Is that wrong? It's not a big part, but it's there.
It was also retracted more or less immediately (Score:2)
As TFS says, it was just a single teacher...
And a good thing, also!!!111 (Score:3, Funny)
Dunno, when I was in school, I had at least one knife on me every single day for most of my school years. Plus lighters and a torch.
End result? Teachers came to me instead of walking down to the main teacher's lounge when they needed to cut anything or start the Buthane in Chemistry.
Now I am working. And I carry a Victorinox Swiss Tool while doing desk work.
So yah, ban all them weapons!!!111
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I remember some time ago when it was the rage to fold paper and shoot it at each other with rubber bands. For awhile rubber bands were considered a "regulated" item, and getting caught with a piece of rolled up paper could get you in trouble.
But ya, mental teachers here I think.
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We used to make slingshots with rubber bands and paperclips, and shoot bent staples.
It was a lot of fun until one stuck in my arm one day and all the other kids realized it was actually dangerous. I pulled it out like nothing, but nobody else wanted to play any more. -sigh-
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we looped the rubber band between our thumb and index finger and fired them like a slingshot
didn't want to waste a rubber band, had more control, and more discrete. I was quite the good shot. It was the little darts that were rolled really tight that were the most 'effective'. Only the amateurs would try to shoot loosely rolled large strips of paper.
Re:The pen[cil] is mightier than the sword! (Score:5, Insightful)
Erm, well, according to the fount of all knowledge [wikipedia.org], Japan has a murder rate of 0.44 per 100,000, less than one tenth the rate in the US.
Still, never let facts get in the way of good old ideology, what?
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Re:The pen[cil] is mightier than the sword! (Score:4, Informative)
Yes you did. You stated that weapons control laws never "decreased" violence, not "stop[ped" violence.
Re:The pen[cil] is mightier than the sword! (Score:4, Interesting)
Actually, I am pretty sure that measure is to counter violence, but since when has "weapons control" laws ever resulted in decreased violence? [...] But does that stop murders and mayhem? Nope! It just making the killings more gruesome and painful.
You explicitly said that strict gun laws did not decrease the amount of violence found in Japan and that it did in fact make the murders committed there more gruesome.
Not to mention that declaring all non-perfect solutions to be of negligible effect is a fallacy in itself. We may be unable to completely stop murder but that doesn't mean that measures taken to reduce homicide rates (such as making firearms less available) are automatically pointless.
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This is a common argument from americans.
It's also an especially retarded one.
All this leads to is a policy of escalation. I get a gun to defend myself, of course the robbers are going to get guns. Bigger ones too. So then I get a bigger gun, and next thing you know you're being menaced by people with machineguns.
In the end, guns don't help you defend yourself. They only ensure any encounter with something you need to defend yourself against will result in a fatality.
Canadians have, per capita, as many guns
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Yeah, it looks like it's a complete non-story.
http://www.globe-democrat.com/news/2010/nov/18/school-pencil-banning-memo-not-official/ [globe-democrat.com]
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Sure enough, it wasn't: http://www.telegram.com/article/20101116/NEWS/101119746 [telegram.com]
The memo explained that students would be issued a pencil for use in class that would be collected at the end of the school day.
The memo cited behavior problems and said any student found in possession of a pen or mechanical pencil after Nov. 15 would be assumed to have the implement “to build weapons,” or to have stolen it from the classroom art supply basket.
and...
“This was an attempt to by a fairly new sixth-grade teacher to make changes that were not warranted. The student who was found with an altered pen was suspended and as far as administrators were concerned, the matter was put to rest,” Mr. Noseworthy said.
So yeah, the teacher had what she believed was a genuine problem with a certain privilege, and attempted to revoke it. She was overruled. Nothing all that insane here at all...
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Re:You know... (Score:5, Insightful)
You've never visited Nannychusetts, have you? State motto: "We're not happy until you're not happy."
As long as everybody is equally unhappy, then things are fair. What would be unfair is for certain people to be happy when others are not.
It is easier to force everyone down a level then try to give people the means to raise themselves a level.
Since people are so envious of what others have, this also gives the ones taking happiness a power base.
Re:You know... (Score:5, Interesting)
Based on the rest of your post, I don't think you are advocating this position (merely stating why someone would do this). Still, I'd suggest that anyone who agrees with this notion to read Harrison Bergeron [tnellen.com], where "equality of outcome" is the central theme. This is where we will eventually be led.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
I have long felt that Harrison Bergeron should be required reading in every law school in the country.
On a separate but related note, I am afraid that a significant percentage of registered voters in the US would think your sig is referring to some of Cher's costumes.
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As far as I'm aware, most UK schools don't have metal detectors to check for guns.
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As far as I'm aware, most UK schools don't have metal detectors to check for guns.
Probably because British school kids would shoot you if you tried to make them go through a metal detector.
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Your title is not a question? (Score:2)
I'm getting all vengeful on one of my greatest pet-peeves and perennial nemeses.
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The problem with profiling is that it leads to a self perpetuating loop.
Drag aside and search everyone who fits the profile of those caught trying to smuggle weapons in the most in the last 6 months.
Lets say 80 year olds grandmothers.
now 80% of the people you search are old grannies, a few of them will have weapons and a few will have what look like weapons.
so 6 months later you decide to see if your profiling has worked: IT HAS! look! see over 50% of the people caught with weapons(in this case long sharp m
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It's very simple, really. First, you give them a pedicure. Then, while they're admiring their feet, have someone bash them in the head.