8-year-old boy suspended for sniffing marker

Yesterday my two daughters and I were cleaning out our storage shed and I came across a box of Sharpie pens. We took the lid off one of the pens and gave it a sniff, because we like the way Sharpies smell.

Today, my wife showed me an article about an 8-year-old Colorado boy who is unlucky enough to attend a school run by morons. When he took a sniff of a Sharpie in class, the principal suspended him.

A teacher sent him to the principal when she noticed him smelling the marker and his clothing.

"It smelled good," [Eathan] Harris said. "They told me that's wrong."

Eathan shyly shook his head "no" when a reporter asked if he knew about "huffing."

[Principal Chris] Benisch stands by his decision to suspend Harris, saying it sends a clear message about substance abuse.

"This is really, really, seriously dangerous," Benisch said.

In his letter suspending the child, Benisch wrote that smelling the marker fumes could cause the boy to "become intoxicated."

A toxicologist with the Rocky Mountain Poison Control Center says that claim is nearly impossible.

I agree the the principal sent a "clear message." The message is that this poor decision and his refusal to acknowledge it makes him unfit to be principal of a school.

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