Say WA? Evergreen State ping Quick link: WA State Board
FReepmail sionnsar if you want on or off this ping list.
Ping sionnsar if you see a Washington state related thread.
Posted on 12/16/2010 6:00:56 PM PST by marktwain
This morning, if accounts in Kalispell and Missoula newspapers are accurate, 16-year-old Demari DeReu should be back in class at Columbia Falls High School after the School Board last night showed the good sense that this column accurately suggested – “for the sake of argument” – would be the case.
There are several lessons to be learned by educators throughout the Northwest, including right here in Washington, where the story has gotten considerable reaction from members of the Hunting-Washington forum. Chief among lessons to be learned from these Montana school officials is that common sense and compassion should always trump zero tolerance, and that while adversity can build character, it can also demolish community good will. Fortunately, existing Montana statute on "zero tolerance" wisely gives local authorities flexibility that is all too frequently not demonstrated by school officials in other parts of the country. As stated by this column earlier, this is the West and "We do things differently here."
Is it fair to wonder how a school district in Washington, particularly in the Puget Sound Basin, might react to the same situation? Washington is still in the West, but Seattle all too often seems to be somewhere south of the Twilight Zone.
Considering what Miss DeReu and her mother have been through since the honor student and junior varsity cheerleader was suspended after Thanksgiving for having inadvertently left an unloaded, cased hunting rifle in the trunk of her car following a family hunting excursion, the case could be a blessing in disguise.
Instead of a Zero Tolerance policy putting Demari DeReu on trial, it is the other way around. The controversy in Columbia Falls has properly put Zero Tolerance to the test, and it flunked.
(Excerpt) Read more at examiner.com ...
Bingo!
Darn straight. I’m not even convinced any level of government is allowed to run state schools.
Say WA? Evergreen State ping Ping
When I was in High School most trucks had a rifle rack in the rear window.
That rack was usually filled with guns.
The doors to those trucks were often unlocked.
One of those trucks was mine
Never had or heard of any problems. Times have obviously changed
Dang! I would have hoped for better this from a town in Montana! Of course, a lot of water has gone over the dam. I remember rolling into Columbia Falls one Saturday morning on the way to Glacier Park and they were having a big parade. They had American Flags and everything! And now I learn that they had a fecal hemorrhage over a cased, unloaded firearm locked in the trunk of a car? Dang!
Not to put too fine a point on it, but much as I wish it were otherwise, Montana IS NOT the true west! I used to THINK it was, or SHOULD be; until I observed election returns from there, etc., and concluded that the Dakotas, Montana, et al, were merely Wisconsin West. Same commie-lib political mindset, same tendency to swerve left on most important issues. I LOVE MONTANA for the geography God put there, but I have no illusions about where they will be politically when the chips are down, in most cases.
Lots of Californians have moved into Montana, and they bring their attitudes to them. Having fouled their nests, they move to another one, and don’t change their habits.
Aside from being stuck with the same idiotic Federal mandates the rest of the country gets gigged by, maybe you need to get a mite further from the interstate before you judge a place or its people.
Bookmark
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.