Maybe, just maybe, the time has come for schools to loosen up their zero-tolerance policies, said Rich Campbell in the Stuart (Fla.) News. Last month, a 13-year-old student at Spectrum Junior-Senior High School in Stuart, Fla., was arrested after he, according to the police report, “continually disrupted his classroom environment” by repeatedly breaking wind, on purpose. “Arrested. For passing gas.”
The kid confessed, said Frank Cerabino in The Palm Beach Post, but maybe he’s getting railroaded. “Prosecutors never explored the possibility of multiple perpetrators,” and instead solicited damning testimony from classmates who might actually have been “unindicted co-conspirators.”
"Is this really a job for the police department?" asked the blog Bucks Right. "Are schools really so hamstrung that they cannot effectively discipline a child for these relatively minor (depending on dinner) infractions?"
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
September 14 editorial cartoonsCartoons Sunday’s political cartoons include RFK Jr on the hook, the destruction of discourse, and more
-
Air strikes in the Caribbean: Trump’s murky narco-warTalking Point Drug cartels ‘don’t follow Marquess of Queensberry Rules’, but US military air strikes on speedboats rely on strained interpretation of ‘invasion’
-
A tour of Sri Lanka’s beautiful northThe Week Recommends ‘Less frenetic’ than the south, this region is full of beautiful wildlife, historical sites and resorts
