December 21, 2004
Bunker of the Skittish: Losing It in America
By DAVE LINDORFF
In this post-Columbine, post 9-11 era, America has simply lost it.
Just this past week, a 10-year old girl who brought a pair of scissors from home to school in her school bag to continue work on a magazine clipping class project, was summarily turned over to police in Philadelphia by a bureaucratically blinded principal, who allowed her to be shipped off to jail, handcuffed, in a police wagon. The principal didn't even bother to notify the frightened child's mother, who learned of her daughter's ordeal when police detectives called her and said they had her daughter in a holding cell. The school district is justifying its over-the-top handling of this incident by citing the several hundred cases of weapons and sharp objects being brought into Philadelphia schools this year, as well as some serious incidents of attacks on students by other students. ...
<http://www.counterpunch.org/lindorff12212004.html>
Carl