When I was in kindergarten, I found a knife in the pocket of a hand-me-down jacket I was wearing for the first time. I gave it to my teacher, and I don’t remember her reacting at all. She gave the knife to my parents when they picked me up at the end of the day. And that was that.

I used to run around at recess at that age with the other kids, and use bent sticks as fake guns. We shot at each other, rolled down hills dying from fake bullet wounds, and used pinecones as grenades. Looking back that sounds a little bit morbid, but I think I ended up fine. I didn’t torture small animals nor did I become a serial killer. In fact, I never killed anything bigger than a bug until a few weeks ago when I slaughtered some chickens for the first time.

I’m pretty confident that some of my 5-year-old artwork in school included death and destruction. But that was decades ago. Now, kids are labeled terrorists for acting like kids.

It’s no wonder kids pretend the way they do with the violent focus of the media. You probably couldn’t insulate your kid from bombs and bloodshed if you tried. I wouldn’t be surprised if they discussed it in the kindergarten class.

Yet a 5-year-old was suspended for making a terrorist threat. The tuition-free public charter school in Modesto California said the five-year-old intentionally made threats meant to intimidate and harass.

The kid, Jackson, told the teacher he couldn’t take off his backpack because there was a bomb in it, and it would explode if he did. Sounds like a hero to me.

The school initially sent the Rileys a letter saying their son was suspended for his intent to “threaten, intimidate or harass others.” The family was told that was the school code violation that best fit what happened, Ian Riley said.

When the Rileys pointed out that code applied only to fourth- through 12th-graders, not kids as young as Jackson, the school agreed and so sent a second letter, changing the violation to one about making terrorist threats.

“My son never made a threat, never wanted to blow up the school,” Riley said. “He was almost victimizing himself in his imagination, making himself the hero” by keeping the backpack on.

Though it was “all in the world of pretend play,” Michelle Riley told Fox, his not wanting to take off the backpack meant Jackson didn’t want to hurt anyone. “Where was the threat?”

Public Schools Are Trash

Public schools are more than just a waste of time. Public schools are a threat to parents and a psychological liability to kids. As this case points out, they punish kids for pretending. Better watch that imagination! And watch what you say.

Public schools put kids in the presence of strangers that they and you do not know. It opens kids up to the influence of other kids they may never otherwise come into contact with.

Some people might think this is a good thing, but why? Why expose your kids to bullies and tiny thugs? If you want your kids to get some culture, you can certainly find groups that you can vet first. There is no psychological benefit to putting your kids in contact with questionable authorities and abusive peers.

“They’ll have to deal with it when they are older.” Maybe, maybe not. If so, let them deal with it when they are older. Then they will hopefully not be scarred by authority figures labeling them a terrorist for no reason. They should be secure in themselves by then to know their peers’ derision is not a reflection on them.

If they never come into contact with bullies and bigheaded authorities, great! You helped them avoid being around terrible people.

Homeschool your kid, find an alternative program, hire a tutor, send them to private school, or whatever. Do what you have to in order to insulate them from agents of the state and their asinine methods of dealing with children.

Otherwise, you are gambling with their wellbeing. You can’t control everything, but you can stop the state from programming your kid to be what they think is a perfect citizen. Obedient, only acting with permission, and having no imagination.

I’m not knocking all public school teachers. My mom has taught fifth grade for nearly twenty years. What has she witnessed?

Ballooning administration who get hired for their last two years before retirement to boost their pension. A growing focus on lessons to do well on state standardized tests in order to make the school look good. Being told she is not allowed to fail a kid, and that it is against policy to hold kids back a grade. And she works for probably one of the better public schools!

Last year she was blamed for a fifth grader being unable to read, and for her failure to bring it to the attention of administration and parents. Yes, the parents didn’t know that their kid couldn’t read, it was the teacher’s responsibility!

That is how much some of these people have abandoned their parental roles to the state.

Like my mom, plenty of teachers truly love teaching. Lucky for her, she will soon retire and be able to teach in the private sector without state pressure directing her methods.

Lucky for young teachers, there are many other private sector options if you want to teach kids, but not serve as a state behavior enforcer.

Parents can encourage these alternative schooling methods by finding unique programs, homeschooling, and supplementing specific classes and tutoring.

Don’t let the government mold the psychology of the next generation.