It's Not Zero Tolerance: It's Zero Intelligence

Shall Not Be Questioned pointed me to this bizarre news story that sounds like a Saturday Night Live skit.  From the December 14, 2011 WKRN-TV:

SMYRNA, Tenn. - For the rest of the semester, a Rutherford County elementary student has to eat lunch at the "silent table" for allegedly waving around a slice of pizza some say resembled a gun.

It appears that a 10 year old was eating a slice of pizza, and another kid at the table pointed out that the way he had eaten the slice made it look like a gun.  As any mildly witty 10 year old would do (perhaps even a 55 year old might do), he proceeded to open fire with his pizza slice gun.  I'm sure that everyone was very amused.  Except, of course, for the principal. 

"I realize some might say we are going overboard but the principal is just trying to use an abundance of caution and send the message that we don't play about guns and it's not something we joke around about," he said.

 The map is the not place; the symbol is not the object; but the principal is an idiot.  As one of the comments over at Shall Not Be Questioned pointed out:

"How are other students supposed to feel safe when threatened with pizza in the shape of a gun?”
“I don’t know, how are students going to feel safe when they know that every adult around them is a complete moron driven mad with power?”