Has the world become too dangerous for doodles [drawings of guns], spitballs and pocketknives? If Opie and the Beaver left the world of black-and-white TV, materialized in a modern school and emptied their pockets, would they get busted, too?

Sure, they'd get busted too. Only if they were still inside their TV shows, they'd have a chance at common sense prevailing. But movies like Pleasantville taught us that the 'good ole days' were boring and grey. Nobody had any real fun until they broke a law, or had sex, or got naked. Seems we traded in the common sense that ruled back then, a little at a time, in exchange for a bit of fun. Only we kept trading and trading, and now that the common sense is all but used up - there isn't as much room for fun as there used to be.

A 9th grade girl w/ a 3.8 GPA paid a classmate $1 for an over-the-counter stimulant after staying up late cramming for an exam. The school gives students an award of $100 for turning in drug offenders. Someone turned in Heather to the principal, who recommended suspension from school for two years. Suprisingly, the School Superintendent agreed with her father that the punishment wasn't appropriate.

2nd grader suspended & sent to alterative school for a month after bringing his grandfather's pocketwatch to show and tell. There is a tiny pocketknife with a 1-inch blade attached to the watch chain.

Zero Common Sense : If anything is worse than the proliferation of well-intentioned but ill-conceived laws that allow for such a travesty, it's the enforcement of them by adults who choose blind adherence to the letter, not the spirit, of the law.

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