8-year-old suspended for sniffing marker

The right-wing "zero tolerance" Taliban doesn't seem to mind when someone gets shot or pushed down the steps at school - but sniff a marker, and you've earned the school's enmity for life.

In Westminster, Colorado, an 8-year-old elementary school student has been suspended from school because he (I'm warning you, dear reader, please don't read further if you're easily offended) sniffed his shirt after drawing on it with a Sharpie marker.

"It smelled good," the 3rd grader said. "They told me that's wrong."

The school's excuse was that sniffing the marker supposedly looked like he was huffing an inhalant. Which is bullshit, of course. I don't think I ever heard of inhalants until middle school, so it's obvious the 8-year-old wasn't huffing the ink. And if markers pose such a risk, why would they be readily available in elementary schools?

People sniffed markers all the time when I was in school, and nobody batted an eye at them. A toxicologist for the Rocky Mountain Poison Control Center says it's impossible to get high from this type of nontoxic marker. Absolutely impossible. In other words, the school is full of shit (a not uncommon characteristic of schools).

The suspension was reduced from 3 days to one day after the boy's parents complained. (Wow, what liberalness on the part of the school!) But if I had a child who was suspended over something like this, the school would have to face me in court. These days, people aren't willing to stand up for their rights like they to used to be, and that's why schools think they can run roughshod over rights.

I think it's time for a legislative fix to the "zero tolerance" bane. Lawmakers need to stand up and say that schools can't pull this horseshit.

(Source: http://www.9news.com/news/article.aspx?storyid=89333)