Expelled for buying Skittles?

Ok...so I normally don't post about things I read in the paper, but I just couldn't help myself when I ran across this one.

NEW HAVEN, Conn.--

"An eigth-grade honors student, Michael Sheridan, was stripped of his title as class vice president, barred from attending an honors dinner and suspended for a day after buying a bag of skittles from a classmate.

A school spokeswoman says the New Haven school system banned candy sales in 2003 as part of a wellness policy." ---AP from the Chicago Sun-Times

Ok, let me get a grip before I completely go off. This kid...an honor student...who obviously wasn't one of the bad seeds we read so much about in today's world, was suspended...for buying a bag of Skittles?

Is Skittles now the new street lingo for Crack?

Or, are they still just Skittles? You know...the colorful little sweet candy...turns your palm a rainbow of colors if left there too long? Those?

Yup.

Ok, so I understand the need to completely re-vamp the schools nutrition and physical education programs, as the childhood obesity rate is rapidly sky-rocketing. That's a no brainer. An in this, sure...throw out some verbal warnings. Timeouts. Hell, confiscate the candy if need be.

But suspension? Loss of a student council title? Come on. Is it just me, or is this just a tad bit extreme? I mean really. The school system needs to make an example of somebody, and this "good kid," (and by good kid I mean the following: not getting girls pregnant, a member of student council, and an honor student who quite clearly applies himself) unfortunately had to be the one to take the fall.

My question is this: Why does it have to be so excessive? When I was in school, we had what they called "detention." Yeah, it's nothing to look forward to...and you generally didn't do anything but sit in the teacher's classroom who was generous enough to give you said detention, and stare at the clock, waiting for your time to end. You learned your lesson. And that was that. You paid your time, everybody was happy.

I don't know what's wrong with the world today. What kind of lesson are we teaching our children by going to such drastic measures for such a relatively minor infarction?

We're teaching them to be afraid of the tyranny and endless power of those in positions of authority. How very Orwellian, if you ask me. I'm grateful that I'm old enough to know better, but truly fear for the youth of today.

So what happens a few years from now when a student needs to borrow a pencil from a fellow classmate?

Do we bring caning back? Hobbling?

Hey...face it. It's not too far off.