{"id":4030,"date":"2011-08-25T14:51:00","date_gmt":"2011-08-25T14:51:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/2011\/08\/25\/what-ever-happened-to-thinking\/"},"modified":"2019-08-16T18:15:54","modified_gmt":"2019-08-16T18:15:54","slug":"what-ever-happened-to-thinking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/?p=4030","title":{"rendered":"What Ever Happened To Thinking"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class='__iawmlf-post-loop-links' style='display:none;' data-iawmlf-post-links='[{&quot;id&quot;:17106,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/www.rutherford.org\\\/articles_db\\\/press_release.asp?article_id=950&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/web-wp.archive.org\\\/web\\\/20111013024113\\\/http:\\\/\\\/www.rutherford.org\\\/articles_db\\\/press_release.asp?article_id=950&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-21 05:27:01&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:404}],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-21 05:27:01&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:404},&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;},{&quot;id&quot;:17107,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/www.rutherford.org\\\/pdf\\\/2011\\\/08-24-2011_Letter_Doug-Bartlett.pdf&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/web-wp.archive.org\\\/web\\\/20111119053955\\\/http:\\\/\\\/www.rutherford.org\\\/pdf\\\/2011\\\/08-24-2011_Letter_Doug-Bartlett.pdf&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-21 05:27:08&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:404}],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-21 05:27:08&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:404},&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;}]'><\/div>\n<p>The Chicago Public Schools have suspended Doug Bartlett, a second grade teacher at Washington Irving Elementary School, for &#8220;weapons possession&#8221; and &#8220;negligently supervising children&#8221;. From the charges you would have thought he was letting the little kids play with a loaded Glock. Instead he was doing a &#8220;show and tell&#8221; on tools for a learning module. The tools included wrenches, screwdrivers, pliers, and, horror of horrors, a 2.25 inch penknife. The children were just shown the tools and did not handle them. Mr. Bartlett stands accused of violating the school system&#8217;s zero tolerance policy. Zero tolerance policies should be renamed zero thinking policies!<\/p>\n<p>Fortunately for Mr. Bartlett, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.rutherford.org\/articles_db\/press_release.asp?article_id=950\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">his case is being taken up by The Rutherford Institute<\/a>. Their press release is below:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><i>8\/24\/2011<\/p>\n<p><b>Zero Tolerance Alert: Chicago Elementary School Teacher Accused of Weapons Possession for Demonstrating Use of Tools in Classroom<\/b><br \/>\nCHICAGO, Ill. \u2014 In yet another instance of zero tolerance run amok, The Rutherford Institute has come to the defense of a Chicago public school teacher who is being charged with possessing, carrying, storing or using a weapon after he displayed such garden-variety tools as wrenches, pliers and screwdrivers in his classroom as part of his second grade teaching curriculum that required a &#8220;tool discussion&#8221;. <b>Despite the fact that all potentially hazardous items were kept out of the students\u2019 reach, school officials at Washington Irving Elementary School informed Doug Bartlett, a 17-year veteran in the classroom, that his use of the tools as visual aids endangered his students.<\/b> Bartlett now faces disciplinary action and possible termination. Warning the school that disciplinary action under these circumstances could constitute a violation of Bartlett\u2019s Fourteenth Amendment right to due process, Rutherford Institute attorneys are demanding that the school halt the disciplinary proceedings against Bartlett.<\/p>\n<p>The Rutherford Institute\u2019s letter to Washington Irving Elementary School officials in defense of Doug Bartlett is available <a href=\"http:\/\/www.rutherford.org\/pdf\/2011\/08-24-2011_Letter_Doug-Bartlett.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">here.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The charges against Doug Bartlett are absurd\u2014a gross overreaction to a simple teaching demonstration\u2014and underscore exactly what is wrong with zero tolerance policies in the schools,&#8221; said John W. Whitehead, president of The Rutherford Institute. &#8220;School officials should know better than to impose such draconian punishments for innocent actions. Commonplace, basic tools such as wrenches and pliers used as part of a classroom exercise are clearly not weapons. Education truly suffers when school administrators exhibit such poor judgment and common sense.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Doug Bartlett teaches second graders at Washington Irving Elementary School in Chicago. On August 8, 2011, Bartlett used several garden-variety tools he uses around the classroom, including wrenches, screwdrivers, a box cutter, a 2.25&#8243; pocketknife, and pliers, as visual aids for a &#8220;tool discussion&#8221; which is required by the teaching curriculum. It is common for teachers to use such visual aids to help students retain their lessons. As he displayed the box cutter and pocketknife in particular, Bartlett specifically described the proper uses of these tools. <strong>None of the tools were made accessible to the students. When not in use, the tools are secured in a toolbox on a high shelf out of reach of the students.<\/strong><br \/>\nHowever, on August 19, Bartlett received notice that he was under investigation for, among other things, &#8220;possessing, carrying, storing, or using a weapon,&#8221; and for negligently supervising children. If found at fault, Bartlett faces punishments ranging from a simple written reprimand to termination. Bartlett then turned to The Rutherford Institute for help. In coming to Bartlett\u2019s defense, Institute attorneys point out Bartlett had no intent to use the tools as weapons. In fact, he has used some of the same tools for years without incident.<\/p>\n<p>Institute attorneys are urging Valeria Newell Bryant, the principal of Washington Irving Elementary School, to immediately dismiss any and all disciplinary actions against Bartlett. &#8220;In an age where public schools face an unprecedented number of real challenges in maintaining student discipline, and addressing threats of real violence, surely no one benefits from trumped up charges where no actual \u2018weapons\u2019 violation has occurred and there is no threat whatsoever posed to any member of the school community,&#8221; stated the Institute in its letter.<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<div style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;\" class=\"sharethis-inline-share-buttons\" ><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Chicago Public Schools have suspended Doug Bartlett, a second grade teacher at Washington Irving Elementary School, for &#8220;weapons&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[737,403,4183],"class_list":["post-4030","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-chicago","tag-stupidity","tag-zero-tolerance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4030","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4030"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4030\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7107,"href":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4030\/revisions\/7107"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4030"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4030"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4030"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}