Watch Out For the Skittles Police

This is in no way travel related, but it was so ridiculous I just had to comment on it. This article is from WBZTV.com is about an 8th grade student who was suspended for buying Skittles from another classmate. Apparently the New Haven, Connecticut school has some insane rule that forbids candy from the property as well as the exchange of money from one student to another,

Really? Is this something we as Americans need to be worried about?

The article mentions that the student, Michael Sheridan, was not only an honor student, but he was the class vice president as well. Now, he's been suspended for 3 days (though it was reduced to 1 day), he's forbidden from attending an honors student dinner, and has been stripped of his title as class vice president.

All over some candy. I can see the school not wanting to promote the sale of candy. That's fine. If they'd rather sell fruit and other healthy options, more power to them. But the degree of punishment handed down for buying one bag of Skittles is an outrage. If Sheridan chooses to eat candy rather than fruit, that's his choice. The school has no right to tell him what he can and can't eat.

As for the breaking of the rules, I understand that much. I too have been to middle school, and I find it hard to believe that the student, especially a class vice president, wouldn't know that he can't be eating candy in class. However, there is something to be said about the old saying, "A bad law deserves to be broken."

All this school has done is punished an otherwise good student (who never had a disciplinary record), given themselves a bad reputation of an authoritarian administration, and shown this young student prematurely how nonsensical rules and authority figures can sometimes be. He should have figured that out in high school.

So to you, Michael Sheridan, I say keep eating that candy. Don't let the principal tell you what you can and can't eat. It's your body and your health. A rule as intrusive as that is designed to fail.