Don’t our public schools have enough big issues to deal with that they shouldn’t be “borrowing trouble” by setting silly, counterproductive policies?
Up in Coventry, R.I., an 8-year-old boy affixed tiny plastic Army figures to a camouflage hat as part of a patriotic display for one of his school projects. Millions of American boys have played with similar figures for decades, without doing anybody any harm.
But when school officials realized that the plastic figures of soldiers included representations of guns, the second-grader’s project was banned. It seems the innocent, patriotic hat ran afoul of the school district’s “no-weapons” policy — even though the “weapons” in question cannot be fired in any way.
It did not matter, apparently, that the figures were representative of U.S. troops who put their lives on the line around the world to defend and promote American freedoms.
Fortunately, the schools’ superintendent in Coventry later backtracked and admitted the policy ran “counter to the work of our schools to promote patriotism and democracy.” Meanwhile, the retired head of the Rhode Island National Guard presented the patriotic youngster a medal.
So, this story had a happy, commonsense ending. But we have to wonder how many similar policies at other schools fly under the news media radar and remain in effect.