David Codrea: ‘Hobbit ring’ school suspension merits closer look

“A Kermit [Texas] parent said his fourth-grade student was suspended Friday for allegedly making a terroristic threat,” the Odessa American reported Friday. After seeing “The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies,” nine-year-old Aiden Steward allegedly brought a ring to school and told a classmate it was magic and could make him disappear.

The boy’s father, Jason Steward, said Kermit Elementary School Principal Roxanne Greer informed him "threats to another child’s safety would not be tolerated -- whether magical or not.” For her part, Greer declined to comment, citing confidentiality requirements.

What’s unknown is how much of the story as reported comports with the totality of events and what was actually said and done. If all is as related in the OA Online report, it recalls other hysterical overreactions on the part of teachers and school administrators, such as the account of a child suspended for biting a strawberry tart into something supposed adults said looked like a gun, or the teen confronted by officials and police for fantasizing about shooting a neighbor’s pet dinosaur, or my personal favorite, a county-wide school lockdown and detention of a student after a worker misinterpreted the lyrics to “Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” that accompanied a voicemail.

In fairness to the staff and teachers in Kermit, the news account only presents one subjective side to the story, privacy policies do preclude publicly sharing disciplinary actions, and the child in question did reportedly have previous infractions, although the release of that information, from which some no doubt will want to draw conclusions, should also be questioned. Whether the ring business was a gross overreaction or a final straw remains to be disclosed.

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