Weer'd World

Another dumb Zero Tolerance event:

A Michigan high school student was banned from competing in his school track meet unless he got rid of the pink Mohawk he’s sporting to honor his mother who has breast cancer.

Mike Barker, a junior at West Iron County High School in Iron River, Mich., told FoxNews.com he was told his new hair style did not meet the school’s grooming and appearance policy, and was told by his coach and then the school principal that he could not compete in his team’s meet on Thursday.

“[My coach] told me I can’t have pink hair with Mohawk to support my mom with breast cancer,” Barker, 17, told FoxNews.com. “I want this to change. That’s my goal.”

…His mother, Wendy Pawlicki, told FoxNews.com she was all the more outraged because her son had been to track practice for weeks with his Mohawk—it was only when he dyed it pink that he was suddenly not allowed to compete in his sport.

In response to FoxNews.com’s email request for comment, West Iron County High School principal Mike Berutti emailed back the following statement from the superintendent:

“The West Iron County Public Schools supports the needs of the students to express themselves, as long as their expression does not interfere with the educational process. We also strive to balance individualism of athletes with the concept of team that fit within our athletic code. The athletic department is going to work with the student and parents to resolve this issue. The student was not dismissed from the team and we welcome his participation in the future.

When I was in high-school we had one student with a mohawk about twice the size of this. He did often cause a bit of disruption to class, not because of his huge, brightly-colored hair, but because with Mohawks often come affinity to Anarchy and punk culture. He simply didn’t respect authority, and THAT disrupts class way more than a silly haircut. He didn’t keep the mohawk forever, and oddly he was just as disruptive with a number of hairstyles.

Also I’ll add when I played tennis I used to wear a big panama hat to play. Two reasons for this, #1 it kept the sun out of my eyes no matter where it was compared to the narrower brim of a ball-cap most players wore, and #2 it was flamboyant and stood out. This would often distract other players just enough to give me a small advantage.

Better players weren’t bothered by it, but lower players it gave me an advantage.

Couple in the fact that this was done for a good cause really shows how much shaming the schools should take.

Really, does a hair style disrupt learning much? Maybe the first two days, but honestly it sounds like teachers looking for excuses.

Whole University Shut Down for a pellet rifle:

Baltimore County police found a pellet gun in a vehicle Monday afternoon at Stevenson University in Owings Mills while they were investigating a report of a person with a long gun on campus.

The school, just northwest of Baltimore, had been placed on lockdown for several hours after police received a 911 call reporting that two people had seen what they thought was a person with a gun. That call came in at about 2:20 p.m. on Monday, and school officials issued an alert via the university’s Web site that said an “active shooter” was reported on campus and urging the campus community to “shelter in place until further notice.”

So an entire school was brought to a halt. Note that this is a college campus where people pay VERY non-trivial amounts of money to take classes. People where held in classrooms (unknown if students were still allowed to take the “Risk” to leave if they so desired), and these people were told that there was an “Active Shooter”, which thanks to our media circus is a VERY terrifying thing to hear while you’re sitting in class. Double so for those people who are concerned about their safety, and have taken steps to that, only do be disarmed by Maryland State law, and school policy.

Further this report went out over news wires where family and loved ones of students on campus were told that the school was locked down due to an “Active Shooter”.

There was no gun, and there were no shots fired. There comes a point where “Better Safe than Sorry” does more harm than good.

PS: I’ve decided to add a Zero Tolerance tag to the side-bar, I suspect there will be a LOT of these posts, and they should be able to be sorted.