There outta be a law...

Today I present example 3,417 of why big government is the problem, not the solution, to society's ills. Too many times our lawmakers design a one-size-fits-all approach and the result is often a Rube Goldberg-like plan that involves the use of a gold-plated sledgehammer to kill a fruit fly.

Pictorial depiction of Senate Enrolled Act 352

A case in point is an Indiana law that requires every school system in the state to develop a plan to combat gang violence. Faculty, students, and staff will have to be trained on gang activity and violence.  Schools will have to monitor and report on gang activity within their school system. Thank you Indiana Legislators for dropping this turd of a law -- Senate Enrolled Act 352 -- on the school systems of Indiana. Well, except for private and charter schools -- they do not have to comply with the law.

This law means a person or persons will have these duties added on to their workload, or in some cases an additional employee may have to be added to develop this plan and cover the reporting requirements to the State Department of Education. Since it is likely there are few school administrators trained in combating or recognizing gang activity, the state will have to offer training for the trainers. We will have to pay the expense of this training and the travel to the training site. Teachers and staff will have to attend the training after the school system develops the plan, and this will take time from the actual business of teaching students. The students will have a module on gangs and that will take class time from reading, math, science or history.

Lest we forget, all of this training, plan developing, reporting and the expenses for materials all come from the hard earned wages of working Hoosiers.  The State has no issue using our taxes to fund this program. Let us not forget the largest portion of our tax rate, in most cases, is for school funding.

Gang members in their colors, flashing gang signs

I have no doubt there are school districts in the urban areas that are combating gang activity. I also am quite confident that gangs are not a problem in the majority of school districts within the state.

I live in one of the "doughnut" counties that surrounds Indianapolis. Still, according to the local fish wrap, the police chief and school superintendent of the school district that covers my hometown report they are not aware of any gang activity in our local schools. I am sure the much smaller districts that comprise the rest of the county have even fewer issues.

Yet these school districts, some of which have a total district enrollment of just over 1,000 students K-12, will have to spend time and money combating gangs. The only "gang" found in these schools is the age-old conflict between the jocks and nerds. In a few isolated cases there may deadly turf battles between the Sunshine Society and the Future Farmers of America. I believe that is the conflict depicted in West Side Story.

Everyone is constantly complaining about our "failing" schools. Perhaps if we allowed the schools to get back to their core competencies, the "three Rs", our test scores would improve. Instead, our teachers spend hours each week reporting and administering when they could be teaching or developing lesson plans.  Idiotic, catch-all legislation like the gang law is a perfect example of the problems presented by big government intrusion.