Insanity in Ohio

Zero tolerance strikes again.

This time at the Ashtabula County Technical and Career Campus in Jefferson, Ohio, where 18-year-old Jordan Wiser is a student, training to be an EMT.  Wiser posted some videos of himself with weapons on Youtube.  The school decided that meant he had weapons on campus, which is, of course, strictly forbidden in the Stupid Age.

Just as an aside, I never went to school a day in my life without a pocketknife in my pocket, but I understand, things have changed a little in some areas, and knives have changed.  Still, I think school administrators and county prosecutors could show a little bit of common sense. 

Police searched Wiser’s car without his permission, discovering a pocketknife, stun gun and airsoft guns. Airsoft guns fire non-lethal, plastic pellets, and are used in sports games.

“I didn’t think anything of the Airsoft guns,” said Wiser in a statement. “Our school is a technical school, and I was planning on meeting with my Airsoft team after school. My stun gun was locked in the glove box, and the knife was in my EMT medical vest. I bought it at K-Mart and have it as part of my first responder kit for cutting seatbelts.”

The pocketknife violates the school district’s zero tolerance policy against bringing weapons onto school property — a class 5 felony.

For his crime, Wiser was carted off to jail for 13 days.

I would never advocate violence against authority figures, but it is certainly tempting in this case.  

“I won’t even be able to be a janitor. I’m 18 years old, and this is going to ruin my entire life,” he said.

Prosecutors aren’t backing down, however.

“We charge [people] with everything that we feel they are guilty of, and in this case, he is guilty of a felony,” said Ashtabula County assistant prosecutor Harold Specht in a statement.

OK, Mr. Specht, is he guilty or do you "feel" he's guilty?  How many years of school does it take to become that ignorant?  

Honestly, not being a lawyer, I don't see how that can even be possible.  How could violating the policy of the school district be a felony?  Wouldn't a felony have to a violation of a State of Ohio statute?  That means that on the books in Ohio, voted on by elected representatives and signed by a governor, is a law that says if you carry a pocketknife onto a school campus, you are guilty of a felony. 

Jordan Wiser's grandfather is dying of cancer.  Jordan can't go see him because, as a condition of his release, he cannot be around weapons.  So one judge ordered Jordan's parents to remove all firearms from their house and put them in his grandparents' house.  Now he can't go within 500 feet of his grandfather -- even, apparently, if his grandfather is not in his house where the guns are.

Does any of this make sense?

I guarantee there are actual criminals running around Ohio who are not being treated with the malice being evidenced toward Jordan Wiser, who, at worst, might be guilty of poor judgment in putting things on Youtube. 

I hope all the school administrators, police officers and prosecutors are really proud of themselves for persecuting this kid.  You are petty little tyrants.