Teenage hijinks the new terrorism

I'll be the first to admit that this teenage prank was stupid and ill-advised, but for the love of Pete, teenagers have been pulling dumb pranks since the beginning of time. It's a rite of passage and tricking some teachers into eating pot laced muffinsdoes not deserve a potential 20 year sentence nor should it be the subject of a farooking terrorism investigation.

All the handwringing over how sick the teachers got is absurd. They got high and they freaked out. It didn't compromise anyone's health or threaten any lives. At worst, it shattered their ingrained and self-involved perceptions and scared them when they saw the universe in a new way. It may even have terrified them because they didn't know why they were feeling "different" but no one has ever died from eating pot.

These kids are not terrorists -- they're teenagers -- and the administration's constant conflation of terrorism with every little act of mischief and teenage testing of limits does more damage to our safety by trivalizing the whole concept of terrorism. In more sensible times the kid would have been punished within the school framework, as did occur, and probably be given a few hundred hours of community service which would served society and the public safety much more so than locking him away for two decades. The only lesson this kid will learn in jail for that long is how to become a career criminal.

[hat tip JackL]