Saturday, April 12, 2008

This Week in Crazy






(OK, technically it was last week in crazy.)

Poor eight-year-old Ethan Harris (not shown above) was suspended from his Colorado elementary school for sniffing a Sharpie (see below). For three whole days! (His sentence was reduced to one day when his parents raised a fuss.)

I understand that sniffing certain stuff can be pretty bad for your brain cells. But I have a feeling the kid just thought it smelled good. (Which I completely understand.) Next you know, there will be paste-eating bans throughout the country. Magic markers will be forbidden. Scissors will be sold on schoolyard black markets.

I say FREE ETHAN HARRIS--before it's too late!

Full story here.


27 comments:

Anonymous said...

At my school we're not allowed to use white-out, if we need it the teachers have to apply it.
Spiffy

ookamishinzui said...

that's not fair! but I think it's the same at my school too.

Invisible Turtle said...

Well, I know a girl who thinks gasoline smells good, so I don't think that's really too bad.
Plus they're just asking for us to sniff it, making them smell like that (except the orange ones. At age five I refused to color orange things because the orange markers STANK) Especially with the fruity flavors! However, they do NOT taste like they smell. Long story.

Raph said...

White-out was banned at my old primary (elementary) school after several students inhaled it and had to be sent to the nurse.
At my current school, they don't really care. xD

kidmeowkitty said...

i think you should make a movie about the kiki strikes books

lara said...

OOPS......i sniffed a sharpie once. The smell made me want to barf, it was so gross.

Anonymous said...

This 8 year old gets suspended in colorado, and it makes Kirsten Miller's blog!
Spiffy

Sekrit7 said...

At my school, you have to have white out and sharpies. It's on the list of things we need to buy for the school year. There are kids in my class though that sniff them all the time.
I don't think he should have gotten suspended at all. I think the teacher should have made him to stop, and explain to the class why it was bad. If you jsut suspend him, he doesn't know why ot anything, and (if hes like me) will keep doing it to annoy the teacher who wrongly accused me in the 1st place. If that makes sense, which I'm pretty sure it doesn't.
Also at my school, one of my teachers makes us color a lot. (Which is weird to begin with, because I was pretty sure we wernt in Kindergarden) This kid at my table always colors with orange and it STINKS! It's disgusting, like rotten fish!
And Invis. Turtle-Gas does smell good. XD Also, I'd like to hear that story! ;)

PS This is Mysterie, I canged my name.

ss chick said...

'0' o my gawd. like, yeah. i say that sniffing the seriously huge sharpies is dangerous, but, c'mon! that's like, totally rancid. yeah.
oh, and invisible turtle, i agree. the grape markers smell like, UGH! i've never eaten anything weird except dog food, grass, and other things, but my little brother used to eat crayons.hehe, my family has issues.

hania said...

white-out is banned out my school too. permanent markers too-graffiti)
the smell of petroleum is nice. i know, i'm crazy.

Nellie said...

I think sniffing Sharpies and Wit-Out and glue and stuff can kill you and make you high.
Once I sniffed a Sharpie (actually more than once) and I was hyper for a long time. I kept saying stuff was fluffy. I wonder if I was slightly high. hehehehehe

Hazel said...

Was it a Sharpie or a scented marker? I'm fairly sure the scented ones are meant to be sniffed (after all, why else put scent in them?).
According to the Wikipedia article, you shouldn't sniff them, but it doesn't say anything about getting high.
But it doesn't seem like it would help much to suspend him either way.

Anonymous said...

there are kids at my school who sniff white-out. all the teachers know cause we all make fun of him. i don't even think we're supposed to have it, but the teachers don't really care.
If they don't want kids to sniff markers why do they make them scented!!!
I am pretty sure it can be addictive and kill brain cells though.
Some kids in other countries get high off of glue i once heard.

Marinovska@aol.com said...

That's totally stupid!!!! sharpies smell AWESOME!!! This girls at my school are always sniffing white out all the time to get loopy.
--Zero

Anonymous said...

thats rediculous. he's so young!
my friend once got in trouble becuase she tried to get high off of a sharpie. and becuase she was sitting right next to me, i almost got high too!
but nobody really cares at my school. another friend accidently got high off pink hairsrpay in the girls bathroom (dont ask)and our teacher didnt beleive us when we tried to get her to the nurse!

Anonymous said...

Ok, sniffing markers might not make you high, but it does make you feel dizzy because oxygen can't get to your brain. Of course, as I'm sure you all know, without oxygen you can die, so Sharpies are really death devises.

That's part of the D.A.R.E organization. You know, Drug Abuse Resistance Education? Didn't anyone else have to take that at school?

International Mastermind said...

We have health class @ my school- and we were being informed on how people get high and why we shouldn't (very enlightening), and the teacher says: "Like white-out. It isn't for your nails, or anything but paper. And, dear god, don't sniff it!" My friend beside me was smelling the pencil sharpener that she had painted w. white-out. Ha. And when i broke my ankle, a boy I know signed it with a white-out pen.
I also know someone who got it in their eye. Not pretty.

Ick.

Ariana said...

Kids have gotten suspended form my school for things like that. It really is bad for your brain, It kills brain cells. And Sharpies smell so bad I hate the smell!

Cupcakedoll said...

I wonder if there are smells that seem different to kids and to adults. (like the "noise only teenagers can hear") When I was younger I thought things like Sharpies and rubber cement smelled good but now I don't.

Kitty said...

Psh, I sniff alcohol swabs. XD And I used to sniff glue.

Kitty said...

FREE ETHAN HARRIS!!

Kiel said...

woah, life without sented markers, sharpies, or whiteout...i would die! but cut the kid some slack, when I was 8, kids in my class enjoyed drinking PAINT when the teacher wasnt looking! even though that was stupid, and extremely dangerous, they wern't suspended.

schools these days...(that sounds weird coming from a 12 year old.)

Anonymous said...

some kids at my school say that someone at their old school got suspended for sniffing sharpies because according to them it does make you high. i guess loosing brain cells makes you high...

Cassiopeia the Noble Seahorse said...

Haha, that's sort of funny but still sort of sad...

There is a guy at my school who sniffs Sharpies for fun... He's one of those soon-to-be-in-jail people, he gets suspended SO much, and was expelled from practically all the schools he went to before he transferred to ours... I think he's trying to get high. O_O;;

Patsee said...

How would an eight-year-old know that sniffing Sharpies is bad?

We're allowed to use Sharpies and "Wite-Out" at my school. There is someone is the grade above me, though, who has an odd habit of going, "Hey, look!" when he sees a marker, and then he smells it. o.O But I think that they smell awful.

Reading down the comment list on the article's page, how does eating glue lead to crack?

FN da World Dictator said...

FREE ETHAN HARRIS!!!
Totally agree, I smell my crayola markers with the silly scents! Poor kid.

Anonymous said...

Same happened today at my schoool.
Sharpies and white out is banned AND we have locker checks to search for sharpies!