Maybe somebody's finally getting a clue

Girls Just Wanna Have Guns points us to an article about a Florida effort to "keep students from getting in serious trouble for simulating a weapon with harmless objects like their fingers, Pop-Tarts or Legos." Unfortunately, it seems like laws like this are increasingly necessary, as school administrators continute to shut off their brains:

State Rep. Dennis Baxley, R-Ocala, said the proposed bill is designed to bar “overreactions” under zero-tolerance policies designed to keep weapons out of public schools. The bill cleared by a state House panel on Wednesday would bar school districts from suspending students for “brandishing a partially consumed pastry or other food item” bitten into the shape of a weapon or “possessing a toy firearm or weapon made of plastic snap-together building blocks.” Baxley dubbed the measure the “Pop-Tart bill,” a monicker that refers to a case in Maryland involving a student who chewed a toaster pastry into the shape of a pistol, inspiring similar legislation in that state.

One major difference, of course, is that the Florida bill likely will pass, but the Maryland one won't. Maryland government is so anti-gun, you don't even have to have an actual gun to bring its wrath down upon you.

Anyway, maybe Florida can lead states toward some common sense, where children will no longer get suspended or expelled for not violating policies. I don't think zero-tolerance polices on weapons were intended to cover Pop-tarts, and I don't think zero-tolerance policies on drugs were intended to cover the Advil in my kid's pocket. If the policies were intended to cover those things, there's a problem. The fact that those policies are covering those things also indicates there's a problem. Teachers and administrators are abdicating on common sense. It is one thing to ban weapons in school, and another entirely to punish kids for things that remind teachers or administrators of weapons. I hope Florida passes the law and is just the first.