The Clark County, Nevada school district expelled a fourteen year old boy after hearing that he told two girls on the phone late at night, "It's people like you who get on the Columbine lists" after they rudely left him on hold for 15 minutes.

The girls reported this to the school, who then reported it to police, who decided that the boy fit the "profile" of a kid who goes amok and kills people: he gets good grades, dresses neatly, is well liked. The icing on the cake was his taking of medication of ADHD... surely he must be a massacre waiting to happen!

Their other "evidence" included a class report about the holocaust (which included sketches of Nazi symbols) and another report on school violence. The police searched the boy's room, computer, and his grandfather's closet. They confiscated the boy's BB gun and his grandfather's shot gun (the boy's grandfather is his legal guardian). They labeled the boy a "habitual offender" and hauled him away, without telling his grandparents what he was being charged with. The next day they were told he was charged with "harassment" but weren't permitted to see any of the paperwork explaining why or even what the charge was.

Each time his grandparents visited him in jail (while he was awaiting a review by county psychologists), the boy was strip searched and subjected to a body cavity search.

All of this because the boy made a comment- not even a threat, specific or otherwise, on the phone, from his home.

Allen Lichtenstein, an ACLU of Nevada attorney says the policy is better called "zero intelligence" than "zero tolerance". He said, "We're talking about insanity and it just gets worse and worse. What it's really all about is insurance and liability and the school district saying, 'hey, no one can ever accuse us of anything.' So zero tolerance equalling zero intelligence is really the key."

---Nick