Kansas District Mulls Policy That Would Allow Kindergarteners to Be Expelled for Microaggressions

Lawrence Public Schools in Kansas is considering a policy that would ban “microaggressions” and “offensive symbols” from all of its classrooms — including kindergarten classrooms – and students who violate it could face punishment as severe as expulsion.

The school board defines microaggressions as “subtle but offensive comments or actions directed at a minority or other non dominant group that are often unintentional or unconsciously reinforce a stereotype,” according to an article in Heat Street.

The policy would be an update the current discrimination and harassment policy. According to Heat Street, each school in the district has its own handbook of rules for how to deal with violations to the policy — but most of those handbooks do allow for expulsion.

Policies allowing punishment for committing microaggressions are already pretty standard on college campuses, however, this may be the first time one has been considered for students so young. Of course, it’s hard to know for sure whether or not it’s the very first because, as Heat Street notes, there are “more than 14,000 public school districts in the United States.”

One thing is for sure, though: It’s stupid.

#related#After all, why would it ever be necessary (or even remotely appropriate) to punish a five-year-old kid for accidentally saying something that was maybe kind of offensive? Sure, these kinds of things would be handled on a case-by-case basis, but I am confident in saying that there would never be a case where expelling a young kid for violating the abstract, ever-changing rules of political correctness would be the right answer.

Heat Street reports that the vote on the policy was originally scheduled for June 27, but has since been postponed to allow for more discussion.