More Zero-Tolerance Idiocy
The San Diego Union-Tribune tells the story of a school lock-down when administrators panicked over an 11-year-old student's home-made motion detector. The device, a Gatorade bottle with electronic components attached, apparently looked enough like a bomb to panic clueless administrators.
If my child were at this school, I would be very concerned that administrators at a self-named tech magnet school think an 11-year-old can make a bomb out of a Gatorade bottle. If I were a taxpayer, I would be irate that it took the fire department three hours, a robot, X-rays and a search of the parents' garage to decide that it was not a bomb.
The final irony is the statement by the fire department spokesman that the authorities are recommending counseling. Counseiing?!! But of course. We don't want to encourage experimentation or independent thinking, do we? Especially in a school dedicated to technical creativity and experimentation.
