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How a Camouflage Hat and Little Plastic Soldiers Holding Little Plastic Guns Leads to a Change in School Policy.

By: lineholder (Diary)  |  June 19th, 2010 at 12:40 PM  | 

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Young David Morales, a second-grade student in Rhode Island, found himself between the proverbial rock and the hard place last week. Students were asked to design hats for a class project. David designed a hat depicting soldiers in our military. The little plastic soldiers on David’s hat held little plastic guns. The school responded by banning the hat as being a violation of their “no weapons allowed” policy.

David received outside support for his hat design from Lt. General Reginald Centracchio, who praised David for recognizing veterans and soldiers and presented the young patriot with a medal. David also received unexpected support of the ACLU chapter in Rhode Island, which reprimanded the school for violating David’s right to free speech.

Since that time, the tide has turned to alter current policy. The following was issued by the school superintendent, Ken Di Pietro.

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Ken Di Pietro said in an e-mail to The Associated Press that the no-weapons policy shouldn’t limit student expression, especially when students are depicting “tools of a profession or service,” such as the military or police.

“The event exposed how a policy meant to ensure safe environments for students can become restrictive and can present an image counter to the work of our schools to promote patriotism and democracy,” Di Pietro said.

I want to express my personal thanks to young David, Lt. General Centracchio and the school district of Rhode Island for their willingness to allow expression of patriotism. I have little doubt that the school followed the path of what is generally considered to be “politically correct” in our society at the present, even though it defies common sense in a lot of ways.

The circumstances of the situation have turned the tide in the favor of patriotism in this particular case. It is a baby step, but it is a step in the right direction all the same.

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  • klondike

    “The school responded by banning the hat as being a violation of their ?no weapons allowed? policy.”

    What rational person would ever consider little toy guns in little toy plastic soldiers’ hands on a hat could violate of the “no weapons allowed” policy? I swear to Pete, we need to reduce the size of administrative positions in schools, start enusring that teachers understand they get paid to prepare our youth for the real world when they graduate, and that abandoning all common sense does NOT prepare them.

    Don’t just get involved on a national level. Start with your local city councils and most definitely school boards. We are not going to make much progress in preserving this republic if we can’t turn education around.

    I think it was Cold Warrior who first posted this video (thank you), and I think it should be repeated. It’s a must-watch because it addresses the greatest threat to this country quite well.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNUc8nuo7HI&feature

  • Achance

    like that. The employers’ attornies just ban all discretion with zero tolerance so as to avoid discrimination suits. Then sense, assuming there is any, just goes out the window.

  • realskinny

    the control of today’s socialist schools constitutes child abuse.

  • Flagstaff

    No guns allowed in school.

    I guess the teachers couldn’t tell a tiny plastic toy from a real gun.

    But actually, they were adhering to a zero tolerance policy, I would bet. Those policies have been put in place (covering more than toys, guns, and toy guns) so teachers and principals don’t have to make any important decisions. “Zero Tolerance” is one of the dumbest ideas ever to come out of the Education School industry.

  • http://www.dcworksforus.com Kenny Solomon

    But every single time I start to type, this comes out:

    These leftist child-indoctrinating bastages have to be stopped and stopped hard from any sort of horse squeeze-laden moronic brainwashing of our nation’s kids…….. Where’s my rif…………..

    Then I get mad.

    Maybe I’ll think of something later.

  • aesthete

    The phrase “for the children” has given bankrupt ideas and policies an unreasonably long shelf life.

    Given the talismanic power of the phrase, when invoked, to ward off reason, is it any wonder that public schools are little more than social conditioning centers? Napoleon the pig from Orwell’s Animal Farm must be kicking himself for not having thought of “for the piglets” as a rationale for the ruling class.

  • lineholder

    My initial line of thought went in exactly the same direction.

    The silver lining in this is that we are beginning to see some traces of logic and reason breaking through the surface every now and then. First with the ROTC in NJ and now with the change in policy in RI.

    Conservatives are breaking the ground, but it’s ground that has become rock solid over the years. It’s going to take time.

    We can forget about instant gratification on this one ‘cuz it ain’t gonna’ happen.

  • GregInFla

    must be the ones who were teased and picked on when they were in school.

  • GregInFla

    for the Zero Tolerance policies. That all came from the illustriously idiotic US Dept of Education in exchange for federal dollars.

  • Flagstaff

    ZT is a way of avoiding certain kinds of lawsuits. But it results in other kinds.