OK, I went and read the Strib article. (here it is)

And my first reaction is this:

Are you KIDDING ME?

These kids are up in arms over violating terms that they agreed to...and protesting punishments that they agreed to.

Plus, hey, I went to a school where almost everyone carried a pocket knife, and it wasn't that unusual for kids to be seen with "pocket knives" that could be used to fielddress a deer.

To give you some perspective, a former class-mate was in trouble a while ago because, as the principal of a rural school, he thought nothing of firing a shotgun on school property to dispatch a couple of ferrel kittens in a mercy-killing.  It litereally didn't occure to him that in this day-and-age, it might cause a rukus.

It was not unusual to see pick-up trucks parked in the student parking lot with a rack full of guns in the back window.  Fighting in school was not taken very seriously, and I had a target in my locker for a while, where I would blow off steam by throwing Shurikin into the target when there was not a lot of traffic in the halls.

But everyone knew, if they caught you drinking, it would result in harsh disciplinary action.  People got kicked off teams and out of clubs, etc.  It was just something that happened, and not just drinking.  SMOKING could get you disciplinary action.

The student conduct code was quite specific on those things.

To be sure, the administration didn't try too hard, and pretty much everybody did those things anyway...but you had to make sure that you were not caught, because if you were there would be consequences.

I can't believe that anyone is asking for a pass on this.

And given the highly conservative demographic of this area, I'm really surprised.  I thought Bush-lovin' Republicans were supposed to be all for the morals and ethics and law-and-order.

But I guess not when it's their kids.