School Confiscates Cupcakes Decorated with Toy Soldiers

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Back to that again. Apparently you were fat as a child and bitter because no one intervened.
Seen it before.


I think those are trolls. I can't imagine why anyone would want to promote trolling unless they are...............well, you know.



Violence aimed in the right direction is a wonderful thing....

Anyone with two brain cells to rub together wouldn't rely on an opinion based on appearances.
No one with two brain cells to rub together would assume that his assessment of context is the context in which the decision maker took the decision.

I might think that confiscation was an over reaction, but I don't try to elevate my opinion to fact until my opinion is based upon something more reliable than how something looks.

Sigh..............
We're talking about cup cakes here, not nuclear fuel rods.

They are nekkid!!!That's unsanitary and leads to the spread of pinworms.
They look ungroomed also,maybe the head lice.
If you don't eat your broccoli you can't have any cake!!
Or something like that.Hey,teacher,leave those kids alone!! !
Let them have a cupcake,it was the only good thing I remember from elementary.Homemade goodies.

We are talking about something much more important than nuclear fuel rods. We are talking about the authority that teachers and principals have when acting in loco parentis.

Cupcakes are the instant case, but they betoken the much larger issue.

This will just alienate boys even further. All the things they naturally tend towards, the things they are naturally into and like, will be seen more and more as awful and evil, they'll wonder why they like these things when society tells them they're bad. They'll see themselves as monsters, and some will ultimately identify with that, to ease the anxiety. Not to be all doom and gloom, but this is an over reaction by adults, and we're messing our kids up because of it.

With all that said, I love cupcakes.

Let kids have cupcakes with little green army men on them. Anyone that would be inspired to commit a violent act from that would already raise flags from a mile away. Anyone that would say "the plastic army men made me do it" already has bigger issues.

I think you're missing the school's concern. It was not that the presence of toy soldiers would inspire a shooter; but rather that the presence of toy soldiers would remind children of shootings that have already taken place.

Whether or not that is a realistic concern, I do not know. But I will respect the professional judgement of the responsible person who was actually on the scene.

I dont think a kid looks at an army man and thinks school shooting, it's the parents that think that. We shouldn't put our issues on our kids. With that said, I still love cupcakes and army men and army women.

Yes, it bee-tokens the issue of school staff competence AND the protectionist mindset that has settled upon the land like a locust AND the bureaucratic "cover my ass right or wrong" mindset of those who are supposed to be responsible.
BTW: I think it would be far worse to hand out nuclear fuel rods to the kids than cupcakes.
I guess I can't be too surprised that you think the cupcakes would be worse.
"Hey, they'll die from nuclear poisoning but at least they won't be traumatized by one piece molded green plastic soldiers on their cupcakes.




Making an issue of it and denying those kids the cupcakes would cause more trauma.
The shootings were in Connecticut last December. This “soldier cupcake” fiasco was in Michigan in March. I bet the students of the school in Michigan are OVER the Sandy Hook shootings already. Well, they would be if the idiots running their school would stop reminding them at every opportunity.


If you don’t know whether or not that's a realistic concern then it says a lot and………well…..let’s just say it’s not very flattering.


I would too if it were actually professional judgment in the true sense of the word.
True professionalism should absent of hysterics, paranoia, bureaucratic handwringing, and protectionist psychobabble.

That makes about as much sense as banning cupcakes that have powdered sugar on them because the kids will become drug addicts. Now I could get behind banning all cupcakes and there likeness on K street in Washington DC, an emergency Presidential decree banning these hideous confections is in order.

What does that solder represent? Service to his country, personal sacrifice, personal responsibility, willing to lay his life down for others. The solder represents a lot of positive things. In my opinion the cupcake confiscation brought to attention the negative things they worried about - mass school shootings.

There is no shortage of hysterics, paranoia, bureaucratic handwringing, and protectionist psychobabble in public schools, I think it might be the norm.

That's very similar to what I was going to reply. To those that think the little plastic army men are insensitive of school shootings: what percentage of kids in that class do you really think ran home after school to tend their crops in Farmville, vs playing a Jedi, SEaL, or the Master Sergeant...or even a car thief that shoots everyone up as they please?

Definitely kids are exposed to tons of violence in games and media. So if we're worried about exposure to violence, then we're barking up the wrong tree. But this is a soldier in a school setting, and it definitely reminds people of school shootings. I just worry that we'll forget the innocence of kids and do something really harmful. My kid couldn't have a star wars thermos because it had a clone trooper firing his gun. Times that by a million and figure how many kids are having their interests demonized, and how will they react?

Boys will always want guns and violence. Its in our nature, these things represent power, and when brought up right, that becomes our drive to be happy, succeed, and be generally good people. My should we make them feel bad for wanting a toy soldier on their cupcake?

And again, you rely on rhetorical falsehood to rebut a point that was never made.

I don't expect people in positions of authority to be correct all the time. I will allow for the possibility that a person will act perfectly correctly, and in good faith and still make mistakes. I will also allow for the fact that what I consider to be mistaken might not be considered to be a mistake by those in possession of more factual knowledge than I.

I try to emulate Socrates and acknowledge that which I do not know.



You seem to be very well informed about what causes trauma, what kids are and are not "over," and the value of my tabula rasa approach to decision making.

If you find my views reflect poorly on me, that only serves to reinforce the impression of closed-mindedness that you create.

You accept as valid no opinion but your own. You allow no room for error in your opinion, or in the conduct of others. You have nothing to offer but your opinion, and your conduct undermines the value of that.

[edited to correct citation]

Last edited by visagrunt on 13 Mar 2013, 1:04 pm, edited 2 times in total.

1) You gave JohnBrowning credit for what I said.
2) Where does common sense come in? Can there be common sense or do we have to consult a subject matter expert on everything including coming in out of the rain or not touching a hot stove? I think we (those of us willing to call a pigs ass pork) have pretty much defeated every argument in favor of confiscating those cupcakes.

So I guess now you have to find a way for my avatar to be illegal somewhere in the world or some other weak angle.

My apologies--I don't know how that occurred, but I have corrected it.



Now that is a good question. So far as I am concerned, I expect that when people have made a decision, then have used the common sense that they are possessed with. This is, frankly, why I tend to defer to the judgement of the person on the spot, rather than substituting my own, because it may well be that there is a fact known to that person which causes their common sense to go in a direction that seems counter intuitive to the rest of us.

You may well have defeated every argument that you are aware of for confiscating those cupcakes, but you still leave open two possibilities:

1) They were confiscated for reasons of which you are unaware; or
2) The person who made the decision made an honest mistake.

Even if you refuse to acknowledge the first, surely you cannot dismiss the second. We all screw up sometimes, and we should not be hung out to dry every time we make a decision, on the spot, that turns out to have been the wrong one.



There is an old, old political tactic, which you amply demonstrate. It's called, "playing the man and not the ball."

Every time you throw snide remarks at me, you demonstrate that you have no way to "play the ball." When you have nothing of substance to offer, you attack your opponents. You may not like my point of view. You may disagree with it intensely. But when you direct your posts at me, rather than at the substance of the discussion, all you do is demonstrate to every reader here that your cupboard is bare.

You aren't succeeding in provoking me, but you are helping me to make my points among the people whose opinions can be swayed. To these aged eyes, that's what winning looks like.