Zero-Tolerance Watch (WARNING-Joy)

[darrels joy]

Zero-Tolerance Watch

Charles Whittington Jr., an Army combat veteran, "was a victim of numerous roadside explosions in Iraq and ultimately lost a finger," ABC News reports. Whittington, who also serves in Afghanistan, was diagnosed with posttraumatic stress disorder. Readjustment to civilian life wasn't easy:

"A couple of months after returning from Iraq, there was an incident and I got angry and drank," Whittington. "I got into a car accident and a few people got hurt."

After serving time in prison for that incident, he returned to his native Baltimore and started taking college classes.

That's where the trouble began:

In an essay for a college English class, Charles Whittington Jr. opened up about his feelings about his time in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"Killing becomes a drug, and it is really addictive. I had a really hard time with this problem when I returned to the United States, because turning this addiction off was impossible," Whittington wrote in the essay for his class at the Community College of Baltimore County in Catonsville, Md.

"I wrote this essay and the teacher gave me an A for it, and she encouraged me to publish it in the school newspaper," Whittington said. "Two weeks later, it was published."

After reading it, college administrators called Whittington into a meeting.

According to Deborah O'Doherty, of American War Mothers, they presented Whittington with a "no-trespass notice" and told him he was barred from campus until he gets a psychological evaluation. Whittington, understandably insulted, says he won't be returning to the college. The official justification:

Hope Davis, a college spokeswoman, said, "The violent and inflammatory content of Mr. Whittington's article raised some red flags we felt we needed to address in this post-Virginia Tech era. We have an obligation to maintain a safe and comfortable learning environment for the diverse population of nearly 74,000 students we serve." She said some students did complain, and most were veterans who expressed concern the essay would portray all veterans in a bad light.

But wait. The complaint that the essay portrays veterans in a bad light may be valid, but surely that falls under the rubric of free speech. More to the point, derogatory stereotypes are not a threat to public safety. Davis seems to be hiding behind the other veteran-students in order to justify what seems an overblown concern that Whittington would turn violent.

Furthermore, what happened to the teacher who assigned the essay, gave it an A, and urged Whittington to publish it? If she wasn't aware of the school's safety policy, that suggests the administrators are simply making it up as they go along.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...BestOfTheWeb_h

[revwardoc]

And all Vietnam vets are drug-crazed lunatics who would rather shoot up heroin and live on the streets than get a job and contribute to society. Ain't sterotypes friggin' great?!
Whittington's better off leaving that bastion of education.