Colorado Boy Punished For Normal Childish Behavior
This past Monday, Elijah Thurston, a 6-year-old Colorado boy, was punished with a 1 day suspension from Stratton Meadows Elementary School after he pointed his finger in the shape of a gun at another classmate and said, “You’re dead.” Elijah was also required to sit down with a school administrator to discuss the ramifications of his playing in such a manner.
This latest incident reveals the manner in which the public schooling system is exercising more control over students every day, and at younger ages. In addition, it shows how our society has begun to expect punitive arrangements as the norm. No longer are schools merely a place for children to learn; they have become arbiters of discipline and conformity.
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Instead of quickly relaying to children what is right and wrong, schools are now expected to dole out punishments in due course. In particular, high schools have become centers of political correctness, where free expression is stunted and obedience and respect for authority are placed ahead of knowledge. This kind of authoritarianism is now slowly seeping its way down to younger ages, now reaching as young as those at 6-years-old.
With ever-increasing control over the education system by the federal government, such issues have worsened. No longer are students primed to excel in their passions and career goals; rather they are trained to succeed on standardized tests so that their schools may receive more government funding.
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All of these points mesh together toward a singular point: power. Government wishes to exhibit control and power over our youngest minds in order to mold them into a culture which respects that kind of totalitarianism. No matter what level of government schooling is observed, these areas are some of the worst violators of constitutional and civil rights. On college campuses, “free speech zones” are created while Title IX regulations have led to campuses eroding due process rights for young men.
Simply put, young men and women are no longer being taught to ask, “Why?” Instead, they are being instructed to just “do.” In this particular school district, hysteria over guns has led administrators to act swiftly to punish and re-educate young Elijah. While it would be simple to identify that narrow point as a reason for outrage, the broader theme is much more pervasive and intricate.
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There will always be the topics of any particular era that evoke strong emotions and lead to schools levying punishments. In the 1960s, as Vietnam escalated, protests led to issues like the one identified in Tinker v. Des Moines. In that case, students wore black armbands to protest the war, and were subsequently punished by the school district. The Supreme Court ruled that this was not permissible under the First Amendment, and the Tinker Test is still used today to analyze public schools’ actions in regards to freedom of expression.
While these more blatant forms of protest may seem only distantly connected to happenstance like a 6-year-old pointing his finger at a classmate, it is not all that far-fetched. Schools are trying to prime young men and women at a young age to be responsive to what their teachers tell them. Free thought and civil disobedience are abhorred in today’s government-run political climate.
All of this may lead us to wonder if schooling, as such a building block of youth development, is being used as part of an even bigger plan. Government today instructs us today what we may do with our bodies and our paychecks; in many ways, treating us “like children.” Perhaps as government grows larger, it knows that it must create friendly culture toward more entanglements in our lives.
There are plenty of reasons why we should object when government attempts to enforce unjust and unwarranted rules, no matter what the context. It is for this reason that when matters like those dealt with in Colorado occur, we libertarians must stand up and let everyone know of such injustices.
