Last week, a second grade boy in Coventry, RI was sent home after he arrived at school with a baseball cap to which he had glued two plastic soldiers and an American Flag to show his support for our troops. His class had been asked to design hats as a part of a school assignment. Coventry Schools Superintendent, Ken Di Pietro explained that the guns being held by the tiny toy soldiers violated the district’s zero policy for weapons.
After an outcry from the local community, including a protest from Lt. Gen. Reginald Centracchio, adjutant general emeritus of the Rhode Island National Guard, Di Pietro
clarified his decision by saying that the no-weapons policy shouldn’t limit student expression, especially when students are depicting “tools of a profession or service,” such as the military or police.
He continued by saying that he would work to change the policy to allow such apparel. What’s to work out? The fact that the superintendent would have to bring something like this to the board of education for a decision speaks to the lunacy that zero tolerance policies have become. Each time I learn of another of these sad, but amusing little anecdotes, it confirms how our society is losing its sense of reason. More importantly, what do decisions like this teach those coming of age about common sense and critical thinking?
Were the superintendent’s hands really tied in this situation or was this just a cowardly way to cover his butt and the butts of those around him? Some time in the future the second grader and his classmates will all be faced with decisions like this. Will their observation of this chain of events influence how they make decisions? Will they err on the side of this kind of caution or take time to place the situation in context and recognize how a well-meaning policy can be taken to a surreal extreme?