The Volokh Conspiracy:  “the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld a Wisconsin prison’s rule forbidding inmates to play Dungeons & Dragons or possess D&D publications and materials  . . . .  The prison’s rationale for the ban is that playing D&D might stimulate ‘gang activity’ by inmates.  But the government conceded that there is no evidence that Dungeons and Dragons actually had stimulated gang activity in the past,”

Southwest Riverside News Network:  “A parent complaint that a dictionary in her son’s classroom at Oak Meadows Elementary contained the term and definition for “oral sex” prompted school officials in the Menifee Union School District to pull all copies of the book from its fourth and fifth grade classrooms last week.  Copies of Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, Tenth Edition (published in 1994), were taken from a recommended reading list and put into use in district classrooms a few years ago to accommodate higher level readers, said Betti Cadmus, spokeswoman for the district.”  One parent said,

“You want to dumb down the kids? You don’t create lifelong learners by sticking them in a box and telling them what books they can read,”

Why didn’t they just take a black pen or magic marker and black-out the word and definition?  With educators like those at Oak Meadows Elementary school, it’s easy to understand why our education system sucks.

Update:  The school district lifted the ban.  My guess is the district got a ton of negative feedback and agreed the decision was stupid.

Sign On San Diego:  “Students were evacuated from Millennial Tech Magnet Middle School in the Chollas View neighborhood Friday afternoon after an 11-year-old student brought a personal science project that he had been making at home to school, authorities said.  Maurice Luque, spokesman for the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department, said the student had been making the device in his home garage. A vice principal saw the student showing it to other students at school about 11:40 a.m. Friday and was concerned that it might be harmful, and San Diego police were notified.”

The science project was an empty half-litter Gatorade bottle with wires coming out of it that were attached to electrical components.  The student said his science project was a motion detector.  Authorities recommend that the student and his parents get counseling.

See “Schools Have Rules: Better Safe Than Sorry Edition.”

A story in the Washington Post says that a soldier in the Illinois National Guard stationed in Afghanistan has been charged with with possession of child pornography because his mother sent him innocent pictures of the soldier’s 4-year-old relative in a swimsuit.  If found guilty, the soldier could spend up to ten years in prison.  The pictures were taken at the girl’s last birthday party.