Zero tolerance run amok

A Hilton Head Island fourth-grade elementary school student has been suspended from school and faces further punishment after committing the heinous crime of bringing his broken school box pencil sharpener to school in order to, well, sharpen his pencils.

(Picture from pendemonium.com)

Apparently part of the housing had broken off, exposing the blade, but it still worked, so the poor scholar decided to use it anyway, not knowing the hell he was about to bring down on himself.

The student is apparently not a discipline problem and gets good grades, but none of that seems to carry any weight with the overreacting administration:

"District spokesman Randy Wall said school administrators are stuck in the precarious position between the district's zero tolerance policy against having weapons at school and common sense.

'We're always going to do something to make sure the child understands the seriousness of having something that could potentially harm another student, but we're going to be reasonable,' he said."

You can begin being "reasonable" any time now, Mr. Wall. Your administrators have abandoned all common sense in this case and seem to be stuck on stupid, as the saying goes.

I weep for those of you with children in public school systems like this one.