Key component of the article: "On the afternoon of Feb. 20, detectives investigated a report of terroristic threats at the school, where they learned that a student had been completing a math problem that required drawing the square-root sign. Students in the group began commenting that the symbol, which represents a number that when multiplied by itself equals another number, looked like a gun. After several students made comments along those lines, another student said something the sheriff’s office said could have sounded like a threat out of context." So it was people being frightened of their own shadows, which is pretty common after a shooting. Regardless, it was a simple mistake by a student, and a Sheriff's office too quick to pull the, ah, trigger.
The real sign of doom is the article thinking readers have to be told what the square root sign means, and then being unable to get it right.
To be fair there are probably folks in the Bible Belt who think it's a new form of drug. Root? Sounds herbal.
We're now a police state, where offhand comments surreptitiously reported to the State snitch network results in the police ransacking your home. And liberals want to argue the populace should be disarmed in the face of this kind of outrageous law enforcement overreach?
Police officer thought that was a terrorist threat, or was he reacting to dumb student comments? If the cop thought that the symbol was a threat then we need to fire his ass and put him in a group home before he hurts himself. If it was a poor response to dumb kids then perhaps some training is due.
I imagine most journalism majors don't take many math or sciences classes. In fact, this lack of a well rounded education is at the root of a lot of bad reporting especially the garbage which passes for reporting on science.
Perhaps (and I agree that is a problem). But this is highschool stuff. And anyway, it undercuts the story about "look how dumb these kids are for not knowing this symbol" if that is followed by "perhaps our readers don't know it either" and then by "we certainly don't".
Pretty funny from the guy who's always saying that the only reason to get a degree is to get a better job than a mere high school graduate. No room for Leonardos in your world...
Where did I say that? I think you are babbling nonsense again, old crone. It is my mistake for bothering to view ignored content when I should have just assumed you were as big a liar and waste of space as ever.
