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(A letter to the editor, published in the Fairfax Journal on June 22, 2001) To the Editor: What kind of bizarre alternative universe do school administrators live in where they can proclaim a paintball gun, sans paintballs or cartridges, locked in the trunk of a student’s car to be a weapon ["Teen forbidden to graduate with class," June 15]? And use that definition as a pretext to deny the student the opportunity to participate in his own graduation? If Leaman Lewis did miss his ceremony, at least he got a good piece of education out of the experience. Better than in any government class, he has now learned of the utter bankruptcy of a system which can apparently search his car without due cause, and which is unable to differentiate between assault weapons and paintguns, between switchblades and butter knives, between reasonable safety policies and knee-jerk insanity. It seems to me that one category of dangerous weapons in our schools is being overlooked – pointy objects, like the pens and pencils the school functionaries use to write these draconian measures that end up harming our children far more than Leaman’s paintgun ever could. Scott P. Cook
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