'School Retracts Ban on Pencils'

As Kate of Small Dead Animals notes, “Your Children Are Being Taught By Crazy People:”

Last week, Wendy Scott, one of two sixth-grade teachers, sent a letter home to the parents of all sixth-graders announcing that she and Susan LaFlamme were instituting a new rule barring students from carrying any writing implements on their person, in a backpack, or on the school bus.

The memo explained that students would be issued a pencil for use in class that would be collected at the end of the school day.

The memo cited behavior problems and said any student found in possession of a pen or mechanical pencil after Nov. 15 would be assumed to have the implement “to build weapons,” or to have stolen it from the classroom art supply basket.

Offending students would be sent to the principal’s office for disciplinary measures, the memo stated.

But yesterday, interim Superintendent Gordon L. Noseworthy explained that the memo was sent home only on the authority of the teacher who penned it, stating it had not been reviewed or approved by either Principal Deborah Peterson or the superintendent.

Ms. Peterson called the newspaper yesterday afternoon and said the matter of the sixth-grade pen proscription “was handled immediately as soon as I became aware of it.”

Perhaps someone in North Brookfield, Massachusetts really has it in for the legacy of Milton Friedman:

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