You do know that Glenn Reynolds is a conservative professor/columnist. While that factoid has nothing to do with the substance of the claim, I just thought I'd point that out 'cause I doubt it's gonna get a very positive response here.

If I'm wrong (which I can be in spades) and it doesn't get locked, I'll respond to the substance of his column.

I'm not aware of such oddities in Europe.

How long ago did that Pop Tart incident happen? People keep bringing up the same couple of stories over and over again and pretending that they indicate "widespread mental deficiency" as this right-wing blowhard calls it. The truth is however that while there are certainly cases of bad judgment these news reports usually do not tell the whole story as the school is not allowed to talk to the press about behavior problems of the child so you hear the parent's version of events but not the school's.

Zero Tolerance makes stupid people.

There are some people that obsess about these stories of kids getting suspended for toy guns, but there are often details like the ones you mentioned that go unreported because the school is legally prohibited from giving the details of what actually happened as doing so would violate student confidentiality.

People act as if the school is freaking out over a perfectly innocent act, but we have no way of knowing what actually happened. Some of these stories of kids getting suspended for playing with imaginary guns could be making real threats against other students and we would never know by the news reports because the school would not be able to report such a thing to the press.

If a five year old kid pointed his finger at me and said "bang bang" I would not take it as a threat, but if a known member of the Mafia did such a thing to me I would see it very differently. While I am not suggesting any kindergartner is the same as a mobster when viewed through our eyes as adults, you have to remember that these are not adults we are talking about these are kids and to a five year old victim of bullying the pint size bully could look very much like a mobster in their eyes. I know that if I had a kid who was being bullied and that bully were to point their finger at my kid and act as if it were a gun I would view it as a threat against my kid and I would want something done about it. Maybe these incidents involve bullying and maybe they do not, but the fact is that none of us know all the facts of these cases and it is tiring to see people attack the schools based on media reports which usually only tell part of the story.

Any other conservative wingnut bloggers for us to promote today?

Oh, of course, that's just an "attack on the messenger." Sure. And sometimes the messenger tells me all I need to know about the credibility of the argument.

And anybody who feels like they need to pile on to the growing trend to bash my profession.

is a threat.

or straight story of bullshit?

Consider the source.

http://pjmedia.com/instapundit/

Glenn is the instapundit.

It is a fault of the system in certain districts. Some are more tolerant than others. In some districts teachers can be marked down or suspended for not taking action.