Wednesday, April 4, 2018

It's Not Often [Never, in Other Words] That a Nearby High School Makes the Ethicists' Discussion Board

But, here you go:
Then we have Zach Cassidento, a high school senior at Amity High Regional School in Connecticut who was suspended and arrested —arrested!—for posting a picture of his birthday gift, an Airsoft gun, on Snapchat. He was not charged, but was suspended for a day from school….for posting, outside of school, on his personal account, the picture of an entirely legal toy gun (It shoots plastic pellets: my son has several of them).
The people who do this kind of thing to children in violation of their rights as Americans are the same people who cheer on David Hogg while signing factually and legally ridiculous petitions. They should not be permitted to teach, and this kind of conduct ought to be punished.
 Looks like the Libertarians picked up on this as well:
Zach Cassidento was hauled out of class, arrested and suspended by Connecticut's Amity Regional High School for "disrupting the educational process" after posting a photo of a birthday present to Snapchat. Cassidento received an airsoft air gun as a gift. His post contained no threats but it still upset another student, who reported him.
Not only was the young man hauled from class, but five police officers searched his mother's home.

I'm enjoying the trendy and wonderfully retro tradition of people being encouraged to report their fellow citizens for actions that make them upset, uncomfortable, or offended; and then expecting the reported to be punished by authorities.  Such encouragement has a long history, although eventually with outcomes that prove to be socially disruptive.

Here's some fodder for folks so inclined as I share a photo of a rifle [It's a Henry H001, my current favorite at the range]:


I will now await the arrival of the secret police.