I have a hunch there is a bit more to the story. It's easy to toss barbs at the school because it's basically defenseless. The school cannot release any information about this incident because it involves a minor. The mom can spread her own story all she wants because she is not bound by the same law. This mom could be making up so much stuff here and we have no way of knowing. It is her word that the kid brought the sugar for an experiment. I don't' trust some random person I don't know to tell me the truth.
However, as would be typical, if something happens with a school about 75% of the people here automatically come down against the school no matter what. I try to step back and look at situations rationally. There are always 2 or 3 or 4 sides to every story.
After a while you just kinda' expect school administrators and teachers to be stupid, and they never let us down.
Yours were the most sensible comments I've read on this thread tonight. I'd like to take all these people and condemn them to spend a month with my seventh-graders. I'm not sure describing these kids as stupid is accurate, as some of them are really, really articulate, but they have their heads in a whole different world from the rest of us. Good dose of reality needed here.
Notice I didn't come down against the school.
The bag very well could have contained anything.
However, once the kid was found to have made a joke he should have had a good butt kicking and let go.
Oh! thats right you can't spank a child so we have to tie up our police to do what teachers used to do.
Glad I'm no longer in school, probably would be sitting in some jail with most of my class, for one of the many silly tricks pulled on the other students.