beore social media, the double cassette walkman was popular. im dating myself, this was in high school in the mid 80's.

walkmen and beepers were banned, so i was suspended for wearing headphones walking through the halls sans walkman device. true story.

true story, held in the office under gaurd for hours for being "anti-social" and transferred to a drop out alternative type school for troubled kids.

This kids don't have a chance. With stupid school administrators like these how can they con turn out like idiots themselves?

Suspension for a lighter? I can only imagine if that principal would have caught me with my 007 knife from my middle school days.

There have always been idiots in high places and yet most students turn out well. I remember an assistant principal who would "clothesline" you if he saw you running in the halls. Son of a bitch should have been jailed for assault.

While camping as a boy scout, I picked up many a littered lighter - as I recall its called "canvassing", or "policing" for trash & at the very least its standard procedure at the end of an outing.

Mr Principle of Jamesburg,

In the name of your students security, please step down & stop being a media whore.

Your student's deserve a principle whose good judgment they can trust. There are alot of positive role models in Boy Scouts. Its a shame you missed that boat.

The only thing that needs suspending here is Owen's food intake.

"I consider anything that can cause potential harm a weapon."

Anything?

What is up with people saying things that are so nonsensical? Can we please have a little more critical and nuanced thinking, at least among our educators and political leaders?

Poor kid has no choice now but to return tonight and torch the place.

Let me tell you guys a story about zero tolerance. A good friend of mine in high school was an athlete. His family was very poor, but he knew he'd get out of our shithole town and make it to college on an athletic scholarship. He was a good kid, never got into any trouble ever, even got pretty good grades. He was a year behind me in school, but I left to go to college far away certain he was one of the kids who would make it out.

Then at the beginning of his senior year, he wrecked his knee at the very beginning of football season. This meant scouts wouldn't see him play and he might not get the scholarship he'd been counting on. He got pretty depressed, but he kept coming to school.

He had a prescription for Tylenol-3 for the pain in his knee. One day at school, a friend had a terrible headache and asked him if he had any painkillers. He gave his friend a Tylenol-3 tab. An administrator saw it happen and he was immediately expelled, no appeals, because they now classified him as a "drug dealer." Nevermind that no money had changed hands - he was expelled. Nevermind that he'd never had so much as a detention before this incident - it's zero tolerance.

A week after the expulsion, he drove to school and parked in the parking lot, put a shotgun in his mouth, and pulled the trigger. An hour later, the school called a fire drill and a bunch of little freshmen filed into the parking lot. One of them - a good friend of my younger brother - found his body in the blood-splattered car. He was seventeen years old.

I have no tolerance for zero tolerance.

Another acetaminophen-related death.

Wow...that's a sad and terrible story.

I would have just went to the school and dealt with the administrator, end of story.

sounds like he was depressed.

I think he was just looking to roast a few dozen marshmallows

I heard the superintendent just banned three-ring binders with diameters exceeding one inch. Parents complained after one child was putting papers in a three-inch binder ("was just holding for a friend", she said) and damn near lost a finger.

America 2010: where stupid, irrational actions are acceptable if you do them out of fear.

maybe next time don't pick up somebody's crack lighter.

instead of suspension, how about laps around the track.

bending over to pick up the lighter was the most exercise he had.

laps around the track... see, that's a lot more efficient.

The kid certainly looks like he could benefit from a few laps round the track. Suspension from school for one day, on the other hand, isn't much of a punishment at all.

'Zero Tolerance' is a really poor policy for schools. Instead of making rational decisions, based on the facts, they paint a kid who picks up a lighter with the same brush as a kid planning a Columbine.

When I went to high school, which wasn't all that long ago, you were even allowed to smoke (in a designated area of course).