A kid in Wilmington, NC may go to jail for bad language.
Not clear from the story if he actually made any threats.
We have criminalized so many actions that we invoke the nanny now for things that make no sense.
Suspend the kid. Hell, expell the sum' bitch! But don't use the violence inherent in state incarceration unless the action being punished involves direct violence or the explicit threat of violence.
(heh. heh heh. heh. He said "Hell." and "bitch". Heh huh heh. Arrest him).
2 comments:
Thanks for the cool B&B link, you rock on the details!
As for the use of the state to regulate behavior, isn't it rather to be expected that any bureaucracy would seek to avoid responsibility and push the problem down the line. In this case, why would a school official expend resources to discipline, suspend, or expel the kid when it would only lead to him having to make an effort and then be criticized for doing so. Therefore there's a huuuuge incentive to push it on to someone else. e.g. the police. In other words the principle won't get punished for doing something himself about this (expect from nutbars like you who have "expectations") but will likely be punished if he does do his job. If the incentives are misaligned, which almost always happens in a bureaucracy, this should be the expected outcome.
It's an unfortunate extension of the old trick parents used to play on their young kids; kid misbehaves in grocery store, parents point to police officer and tell kid "if you keep screaming, he'll arrest you," kid shuts up. Except now, the kids *are* getting arrested.
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