By MONROE ROARK
mroark@thecitizennews.com

Someone is a moron.

I don't know if that someone is an employee of the Fayette County School System, since all official reports concerning last week's arrest of Jamie Gilman at Fayette County High School have the school system claiming they only did as they were required by Georgia law in reporting the presence of "weapons" in the back of Gilman's pickup truck. School officials may very well have followed their procedures to the letter.

I don't know if that someone is with the local police, who actually arrested Gilman. School officials said they did not request an arrest warrant, and police may have simply been following state law also. They're not saying.

So that would leave the architects of the insane "zero tolerance" policies at Georgia public schools. When it comes to determining who the actual morons are, my money's on these clowns.

In a nutshell, this policy has produced scores of heartbroken students and furious parents; hundreds of hard-working, well-educated teachers and administrators who have had their decision-making abilities taken away; and thousands of students across the state who are not being taught how to think and take responsibility for their actions.

As for Jamie Gilman, he has lost 10 days of school with no possibility of ever getting it back. Depending upon the effect his suspension has on his grades, it could cost him an entire year of his life, or at least an entire summer, if he were forced to repeat any classes. Then there are the criminal charges pending against him, not to mention the fact that he spent a night in the Fayette County Jail. That harrowing experience can never be remedied.

Sadly, Gilman's case is far from the exception in Georgia. The Associated Press reported that a high school senior in Lee County was expelled April 30, three weeks before graduation, when officials found two steak knives in his pickup truck. "We're just following state law," the superintendent said. If I were in his position and that were all I could say, I'd be seriously considering other employment. How humiliating it must be for a county's top educator to have to face the media after a situation like this, regardless of whose fault it is.

If we've come to the point in this state where we cannot protect our children without this kind of idiocy, then it's time to lock ourselves in our homes and pull the covers over our heads.

According to the Fayette County School System's student conduct code, students are prohibited from possessing weapons or "any object which can be reasonably considered a weapon" on school property. Those of you who find that statute completely logical need to sit up and pay attention for a minute while we run down a partial list of what that could include.

Gasoline. Every gallon in every vehicle on campus is deadly, whether inhaled or ignited. All it takes is one match and you have a disaster on your hands. Is there an easier way for a disgruntled student to cause trouble than to light up a car in the parking lot and start a chain reaction?

Tire tools. I wonder how many people have been killed and maimed by those over the years. All you have to do is hold one in your hand for a few seconds and its deadly potential is pretty clear.

Cars and trucks. Perhaps the most obvious culprit is the vehicle itself. If we don't want anyone going nuts and running over someone, we'd better keep all of them off campus and let the kids walk or ride the bus.

Pencils and pens. If this makes you laugh, consider the case reported in Florida the day after Gilman's arrest, where a seven-year-old stabbed four classmates allegedly because he rejected his teacher's suggestion that he share his crayons.

I haven't even mentioned the various tools found in girls' (and possibly boys') makeup bags that get you thrown off commercial airliners these days. Are you going completely out of your mind yet? Some of our state educators are.

This thing is spiraling hopelessly out of control, and I don't know if it can ever get back on track. Until this policy and others like it are eliminated, we can expect a generation of students to leave our educational system with very little knowledge of what it is like to actually think for themselves and be responsible. Sounds like a ready-made army of government workers.

[Monroe Roark can be reached at mroark@TheCitizenNews.com.]

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