Fornits
General Interest => Open Free for All => Topic started by: Anonymous on January 04, 2006, 11:04:00 PM
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Is it any wonder we have tens of thousands of teens in warehouses trying to teach them this 'reality'?
Fred E. Foldvary, Senior Editor
In the schools of the USA, the war on drugs has gone way beyond the list of illegal drugs. Candies that used to be legal are now prohibited. For example, your child could be suspended for eating lemon or lime drops, as happened in Taylor Elementary School in Colorado Springs in 1997. See lemon drops.
A 6-year old student shared a lemon drop with a friend. Evidently nobody told him that lemon drops were included in the list of illegal drugs. "Lemon drops" are hard candies made from lemon and sugar. They contain no alcohol, tobacco, marijuana, or other intoxicating or mind-altering substances, but these particular drops were made from organically-grown ingredients. It was bad enough that the candy had lemon and sugar, which are drugs, but it was bought in a health-food store and the drugs were organic!
When the teacher saw the child share a organic lemon drop, she knew she had to enforce the law. The zero-tolerance policy now widely in effect in American schools mandates swift and severe penalties. The child was suspended for violating the school's anti-drug policy. The school also called an ambulance for the student's friend who received and ingested the lemon drop. They also called the fire department. They should also have called the National Guard, but for some reason this was overlooked.
A member of the school board defended the action, especially because the lemon drop was organic. Organic lemons and sugar are grown without any pesticides or artificial chemicals. He said the organic lemon drops looked more pill-like than the "real sugar" drops made with lemon that was grown with chemicals and pesticides.
While some libertarians deplore the school's policy, actually the school did the right thing. The anti-drug policy is indeed ridiculous, but given that the federal mandate exists, it is necessary to teach students that there are very bad consequences for violating the drug laws. Better to teach them using lemon or lime drops than to have them find out later with marijuana.
The zero-tolerance enforcement also teaches young children about the reality of liberty and justice in America. In school they learn the fairy tale myth about the US being a free country with liberty and justice for all. Zero-tolerance suspension teaches children correctly that these are fiction, and that the reality is severe government intervention into their personal lives. It's good that children are learning this real-world lesson early.
The American Bar Association has come out against this kind of zero-tolerance policy in the 14,000 school districts in the USA. The organization, representing 400,000 lawyers, said such a policy turns students into criminals. But the reality is that by current law they are criminals, so why not let the students know this?
Steve Dasbach, the national Libertarian Party's national director, stated that "These policies teach children that justice is inflexible, and doesn't care about circumstances, or fairness, or good sense. And they teach children that they have no rights -- that they are criminals if they play innocent childhood games, say the wrong thing, or share a lemon drop candy with a friend."
But that is exactly the case with justice in America - children really don't have constitutional rights. Children are the property of the state, and as property, the state may do as it wishes with them. Adults, of course, are also property of the state. That is why the government may tax your wages, confiscate your property, force you into the army, and even kill you. What's wrong with teaching students the truth?
If the schools are serious about the zero-tolerance drug policy, they need to go much further. For example:
All candy of any sort must be banned. That includes chocolate, which is a drug. Any child eating candy must be suspended, sent to a hospital, and undergo 100 hours of psychological inquisition.
The following words must be prohibited: drug, candy, soda, pop, sugar, drop, lemon, and sweets. Fathers must be called "daddy" and not "pop." Those calling their father "papa" must be warned that this sounds too much like "pop," as in "soda pop," which is a drug.
No child should wear any yellow-colored clothing. Lemons are yellow, lemon drops are drugs, so wearing yellow is drug-related.
Chemistry and biology must no longer be taught in any school, public or private. Drugs are made using chemistry and biology, and teaching these topics results in a slippery slope to drugs. All books on chemistry and biology must be placed in adults-only sections of library, and related web sites must be filtered.
This would be a true zero-tolerance policy. As it now stands, with chemistry being taught and children allowed to eat candy, policy is far from zero. Perhaps the new federal administration will make this true-zero policy a top priority, especially if they can combine it with a faith-based lemon doctrine
http://www.progress.org/fold184.htm (http://www.progress.org/fold184.htm)
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And now Sunscreen is classified as a Drug... what next???
Fred E. Foldvary, Senior Editor
After cracking down on lemon drops, the zero-tolerant war on drugs has turned to another substance: sunscreen.
With the earth's ozone layer becoming thinner and ultraviolet rays from the sun beaming down ever stronger, causing skin cancer, many people have been applying sun screen to help prevent the disease.
It is especially important for children to avoid sunburn, because research has found that childhood burns may much later lead to cancer. But sunscreen has now been banned as a drug in schools.
The Ballwin Elementary School in the Rockwood School District, west St. Louis County, prohibits children from applying sunscreen. In Rockwood, there is a list of illegal drugs, including cough drops and sunscreen. Sunscreen is considered an over-the-counter medication, and therefore a drug.
Two girls at the school also studied one day per week at the Center for Creative Learning, a school that serves gifted children in the district. There, they learned about the effects of ultraviolet radiation, and that children who spend much time outdoors are susceptible to skin disease in later years. In Australia, children normally apply sunscreen. But Australia is a sensible country, while the USA, "land of the free and home of the brave," has gone berserk. But this is only the beginning of the insanity.
If any over-the-counter medication is considered a drug and therefore banned in zero-tolerant schools, they will go much further. Besides cough drops, the following items also will need to be banned in school: bandaids, deodorants, and vitamins.
Herbs are also drugs, and commonly used in cooking. Zero-tolerance requires banning all herbs and spices in foods. Curry and chili are drugs that affect the body. That applies also to pepper, sugar, and salt.
Even worse, many fruits and vegetables contain antioxidants and vitamins, and are sprayed with chemicals. Most meat is raised using antibiotics and other drugs, which may remain in the food; all fruits, vegetables, and meat must be banned from school if they are to practice true zero-drug-tolerance.
Clothing contains chemicals that can rub off on skin. Pure zero tolerance for any drugs requires forcing children to remove their clothing when entering the school and wearing a special zero- chemical school uniform with a picture of "big brother" on the back staring at everyone behind. Children must not touch any pencils, because some the lead may touch their skin. They may drink water, but it must be distilled so that it does not contain minerals.
Children in school must not hold hands, because the parents of some children may have applied sunscreen, which may rub off on another child. Children who cough or sneeze will be given Ritalin.
While demanding zero-tolerance from children, school officials routinely force children to take dangerous drugs such as Ritalin, which is used on "unruly" children. In the last several years, while drugs such as lemon drops and sunscreen have been banned, the use of Ritalin has more than doubled. The routine use of Ritalin to quiet children has raised alarms over its overuse.
It is easier to medicate children than to find out what the cause of their problem is. What kind of message does it send to a child if he takes a pill every day to "control" his behavior, and is then told that drugs are bad, even lemon drops and sunscreen?
School officials claim they use Ritalin for ADHD, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder. But there is no definitive test for ADHD, and its symptoms may just be childhood playing, some disease that needs real curing, boredom, child rebellion, or allergies.
Dr. Peter Breggin, a Maryland psychiatrist and critic of psychiatric medications such as Prozac, describes the Ritalin phenomenon as "an incredible commentary on our society." "Instead of addressing the basic needs of kids, we drug them," Breggin said. "Better family life, educational facilities, spiritual direction, a safer environment, better television and videos - forget about it. Just drug 'em."
So the real issue here is not drugs as such, since the government schools are pushing Ritalin, among other drugs. The real issue is power. Zero-tolerance gives the government and school administrators totalitarian power over all details of children's lives, while eliminating any rebellion with drugs that turn students into docile subjects.
No wonder the government school teacher unions are so fiercely resisting the privatization of the school system. More private schools would provide an alternative with common-sense policy, finding the real cause of any behavioral problems while not imposing totalitarian rule over trivial matters.
http://www.progress.org/archive/fold185.htm (http://www.progress.org/archive/fold185.htm)
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Da-aaaam!
Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.
Thomas Jefferson, 1787
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Wait, this is from the onion, right?