Attempt to poison your teacher, and you get "expelled"

Out of Fresno, California comes this all-too-typical story of an example of today's wayward youth:

Three California fifth-graders who confessed to using rat poison in attempts to harm their teacher are being moved to other schools.

The three students at Balderas Elementary School in Fresno admitted lacing the teacher's coffee and a cupcake with rat poison in two separate incidents, according to the Fresno Teachers Association and published reports.

First of all, the semi-happy ending:

Miraculously, the teacher never took a sip of the coffee or a bite of the cupcake.

One of the three accused students apparently had a change of heart and knocked the coffee cup out of the teacher's hand before she could drink from it.

Thank God.

Now the infuriating part, and yet another example of all that is wrong with our educational system:

All three students have been expelled and moved to other schools, according to KFSN. The two boys are being transfered to the Phoenix Academy, which does not sit well with at least one of its teachers.

"They should not be placed at another campus where now other staff and other students have to worry about," Phoenix Academy teacher David Coss told KFSN.

"Certainly like a campus like ours where these kids are going to be elevated to gods to many of our kids, they're going to say this is great 'maybe I can do something similar to a teacher or an adult.'"

The Fresno Teachers Association is also troubled by the case.

“This is but the latest example of the dangerous conditions that exist in Fresno Unified due to inconsistent enforcement of discipline and lack of consequences for students daily,” FTA President Greg Gadams told KMAS Radio. “Something has to be done and this is a prime place to start insuring teacher safety and student accountability.”

So many people don't realize this, but expulsion from school is not what it used to be. Nowadays, expulsion really isn't expulsion - it is really either a transfer to another school district, or an extended suspension that ends with the school year, and after a leisurely summer break, the student is free to return to the same school for the next school year. How do I know this? Duh, I'm a middle school teacher; this very thing has happened to me. I have watched students be expelled from my school, and then in August, at the start of the new school year, there they were, back at my school. Ah, but had they learned their lesson? Had they seen the light and cleaned up their act? Shee-yah, right.

OK then, if the school district won't do anything about these little miscreants, then at least they can face the long arm of the law for attempting to murder their teacher? Can't they? Sigh:

No criminal charges have been filed against the two boys and one girl, according to ABC's Fresno affiliate KFSN. The Fresno Police Department is continuing to investigate, but says there is little or no physical evidence remaining from the December incidents. The Fresno County district attorney's office will decide whether to press charges against the children.

Remember, we teachers are responsible for these kids' test scores.

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson