Poo Poo Head School Administration

Parents seek removal of book containing language they blame for 6-year-old son's school suspension

Is this an Only in America story?

1. Six-year-old boy calls a girl in his class a poo poo head.

2. Brown elementary school in Channelview, Texas, suspends the boy for one day for unacceptable language.

3. The boy's mother discovers later that a book from the school's library, The Adventures of Super Diaper Baby, has the same language in it. She rightly asks the school, how can my son be suspended for using the same language that students can read in one of your library books? She requests the book be removed from the shelves.

4. Brown elementary forms a committee to study the matter. The school's response:

"The review process will involve the appointment of a committee to determine the appropriateness of the material in question. School district policy also states that access to the challenged material shall not be restricted during the reconsideration process."

Now you have to ask here, where did the school go wrong: when it allowed The Adventures of Super Diaper Baby in the library, or when it suspended a student for calling a classmate poo poo head? You'd want a teacher to correct a student who calls someone else a name, but a suspension?

Rather than remove the library book, let Brown elementary form a committee to discuss the following resolution:

"Whereas the school district's policy on name calling - which mandates a one-day suspension for all violators - is a poo poo head policy, Brown elementary requests that the district pardon Johnny and vacate last year's one-day suspension. Until the district reaches its determination, Johnny's permanent record will not reflect the punishment administered."

Oh, and perhaps Johnny should apologize to his classmate, which he probably couldn't do the first time around because he was suspended.