Nevermind common sense, we have zero tolerance

A friend was telling me that her son almost missed his graduation ceremony because he was wearing shorts and tennis shoes. Luckily he found good ol dad and they made a clothes switch. Can you imagine how heartbreaking it could have been if they didn’t let him walk and his only crime was ugly shoes.

Recently a senor was denied becoming valedictorian because she missed too many days of school. It didn’t seem to matter that the reason that she was absent was she checked herself into an treatment center because she identified she had an eating disordered. Decided to treat it, all the while maintaining a perfect GPA. Now I’d consider that inspiring, worthy of a valedictorian. The principal was sympathetic but could not make a decision without meeting with the board. It was unfortunate that the board was not scheduled to meet til after graduation. Guess we wouldn’t want to be accused of making a decision.

It seems ever since the tragedy at Columbine and 9/11 the country is walking on eggshells. Since I work at home alone during the day I usually have the tv on, just for noise. There’s nothing worse then hearing that breaking news music. I remember when I associated that music as oh, it must be a talking head longing for some attention. Now my instinct is to make my boys come home because it might be something bad.

My husband and I are about as opposite on political as two people can get. He thinks he’s changing me but look making up was just more fun when we were younger, so I just bite my tongue. I used to ask him if my handicapped embarrassed him. He’d say no, but your political views do. Now I don’t care about either.

Its ok, I was embarrassed to tell my friends you are… shit I’m still embarrused, a member of the NRA. But Bobby is really cute and I guess we all have our faults. The only reason I’ve come to terms with this is because if the NRA had a poster child for gun safety. My honey’s face would be plastered on that poster.

When we had Nicholas, we made a deal. Either Nicholas would play with toy guns or he would be taught they were a tool and would respect them. Bobby has done a great job. Nicholas knows dad loves guns and if he’s ever curious, daddy will unlock them and show him.

We have never bought Nicholas a gun. Now water guns are a different story… Them are good things, especially super soakers…

Occasionally Nicholas will make a lego gun and if I see it, he says something silly like it’s the letter L. and I’m secretly amused as he runs to his room making his “L” go bang bang. He doesn’t do this very often so it’s really not an issue. I sometimes even think he does it to wind me up. Because he understands daddy loves guns and mommy truly believes if all the guns in the world disappeared tomorrow, the world would be a better place. But I’m also a realist. If the bad guys have guns, I’d rather my good guy have one too.
The other day we were driving and Nicholas asks me to look at him. You could tell he was proud of himself. “Look Mommy, I bit the chip and made a gun.” I tried to keep a straight face as I said, “Just eat your gun boy.”

But that got me thinking. Could this act of silliness get my son suspended? 10 years ago you’d think I was off my rocker but seriously think about it. Nicholas is at lunch with his buddies. Nicholas finds a chip gun. His buddy thinks it’s way cool, takes a carefully place bite out of a ruffle and there you go, a great chip shoot-out in the ol cafeteria. His school has a zero tolerance policy…

Is zero tolerance replacing common sense? Is this the ultimate form of passing on the buck? Could a chip be considered a weapon?

I’d like to tell y’all the answers but I have to go throw away all my chips. Hell, Nicholas isn’t coming home for hours, I’ll just eat them. Hmm… Wonder what shape I’ll bite them into…