Busted!

Ah, youth and drug dealing—how amusing! I found this one via our junior employee at Gawker, Maureen O’Connor (she’s due for a raise, eh, Nathan?). Seems a couple of middle-school boys in Virginia were suspended because they brought Italian spices to school in a plastic baggie and tried to pass it off as pot. They didn’t sell it, mind you, they just showed it off to their friends. The school administrators found out, suspended the kids, and now—shocking!—the parents are considering their legal options. Here’s the details from a local paper:

The school called it an “imitation controlled substance,” which is prohibited under division policy. Even though Adam … was just passing it from one student to another, he was suspended for 10 days and recommended for expulsion, Grass said.

“I know times have changed, and you can’t do (just) anything in schools anymore,” Grass said.

“But I think there needs to be a certain amount of common sense applied to their policies.”

The Grass family went online to look for help and found the Charlottesville-based Rutherford Institute, which provides free legal services to people whose constitutional and human rights have been threatened or violated. The institute sent a letter to the school’s principal Friday, calling Grass’ suspension “a travesty of justice.”

Grass, I should point out, is the family name of one of the suspended lads, which is totally ironic when you think about it! Why not just call him a dope? Which he kinda is for bringing oregano to school and telling everyone it’s, well, dope! Or just call him stupid. Or just suspend him and don’t sue the school, because this isn’t a travesty of justice but almost exactly the sort of thing schools should suspend children for.