Start with a kid who’s an honors science geek.  Add in a disposable camera.  Mix it up at school and what do you get?  A kid suspended and charged with a D felony.  Zero tolerance?  How about zero intelligence.

According to this WTNH story, our young geek took the housing off a disposable camera and found that he could get a shock from it.  Since it operates on a battery, it’s hard to imagine it was much of a shock, but any shock can fascinate a science geek.  So he brought it to school, and it suddenly became a “weapon”.  We know that because the cops say so:

Police tell a different tale. They say, it wasn’t an accident. This disposable camera was modified with information found on the Internet. A 14-year-old student then brought it to the Morgan School in Clinton and threatened another student with it.  He was promptly arrested and suspended.  News Channel 8 spoke to his upset father, shortly after.

“One gets a minor shock, equivalent to what a 9-volt battery, touched to your tongue, would do.  Over this, he’s been arrested on a class D felony?” Bret Haughwout, the child’s father said, on April 2nd.

So now this student is out of school for “threatening another student” with . . . what, a camera?  A battery?  “Freeze or I’ll take really bad photo of you!”

The absurdity of this scenario is best recognized in juxtaposition with the Billy Wolfe situation, where the school does nothing to stop a kid being physically beaten on a regular basis.  The worst case scenario is that this is a childish prank, “haha, I can shock you with this battery,” which some wannabe educational policy-wonk decided was tantamount to terrorism.  While the article makes no mention of it, this is the sort of stupidity that comes of “zero tolerance” policies, where behaving like an ordinary kid exposes students to criminal prosecution. 

Since I’m deeply concerned for children and their safety, I would be disinclined to turn a blind eye to behavior that presents any real potential for harm.  This one just plain doesn’t.  The only harm here is that a student has been thrown out of school, his record smirched, over foolishness by adults.  Explain to some college that the school sacrificed this geek’s future on the alter of zero tolerance.

On the bright side, our young science geek’s parents went out and got themselves a lawyer to stand up for them against the grocery clerks at the school district.  The lawyer is named Norm Pattis.  Gee, I hope he’s got some guts and isn’t afraid to stomp on the grocery clerks’ necks until they cough up blood.  Don’t worry.  It won’t hurt them any, as it certainly isn’t traveling up to their brain.