# The One Ring located in Kermit, Texas **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [February 2, 2015, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-one-ring-located-in-kermit-texas/711610 "2015-02-02T15:47:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2015, 5:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-one-ring-located-in-kermit-texas/711610/41 "2015-02-04T05:27:28Z")
> [@Measure\_for\_Measure](#): > > Well there’s been some clarification. > > The kid [practices magic](http://www.mrt.com/news/article_59932c9a-abd3-11e4-bcac-e775c393149d.html) and some of his classmates are persuaded that his powers are real. Methinks 4th graders are little old to be that gullible. This is what the father says, anyway. I now find myself wondering if the kid was actually disrupting class with magic tricks. ---
**Author:** ![G0sp3l](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c68b51/32.png) [@G0sp3l](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/G0sp3l)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2015, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-one-ring-located-in-kermit-texas/711610/42 "2015-02-04T16:11:15Z")
[http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/](http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/) Everyone wants to have their say. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2015, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-one-ring-located-in-kermit-texas/711610/43 "2015-02-04T20:28:23Z")
I love my state. It is the best state in the union. Except for all the religious whackjobs. Why did they have to settle here? ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2015, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-one-ring-located-in-kermit-texas/711610/44 "2015-02-04T20:44:48Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > Steronz has it right- this COULD be just a case of a dumb teacher or a dumb school administrator overreacting, but it could ALSO be that there’s more to this story (perhaps this kid has gotten in trouble before) and some oversensitive parents went to the media instead of trying to handle things in house. This line from their press release is important, I think: > [@press release](#): > > We would, however, like to emphasize that our teachers and administrators are well trained and have properly implemented the district’s policy and student code of conduct, and certainly do not base disciplinary placement decisions on literary or cinematic references as reported by the Odessa American, the release said. So, what could have happened? Maybe the kid kept on with the ring thing well after a teacher told him to stop, kept arguing about his magical powers in the middle of a lesson. Maybe the boy was chasing someone around and smashing the ring down on his head. Maybe he said, “I can make you disappear, and nobody will miss you, because everyone hates you, you disgusting little black boy.” Maybe the boy was shouting in the halls about his magic ring. There are a lot of different ways that a kid can talk about making someone disappear with a magic ring that are disruptive to the school day. As for “identifying” another child as black, again, there are different ways to do this, and I’m sure anyone with a modicum of creativity can figure out how this could be done in a nasty, bullying manner. As for the pregnant woman, while it’s not terribly revealing, fourth grade boys are a special breed; if he were passing the picture around gossiping about what you can see in the picture, I suppose it could be disruptive. Mind you, these behaviors would all need to be extremely severe before I thought that the boy actually deserved suspension, and I’m pretty hard-pressed to come up with any variant on the picture of the pregnant woman that would come close to deserving suspension. But the dad’s story doesn’t really pass the sniff test. Edit: unless this district is very different from mine, any suspension is accompanied by a detailed written record of the incident, which is given to the parent. The dad could certainly bolster his case by releasing the records that the school has provided to him. ---
**Author:** ![OneCentStamp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/13edae/32.png) [@OneCentStamp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OneCentStamp)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2015, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-one-ring-located-in-kermit-texas/711610/45 "2015-02-04T20:55:00Z")
The kid’s name is Aiden. I now approve of his suspension. His little friends probably named Colby, Brooklynne, and Janessa can go with him. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2015, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-one-ring-located-in-kermit-texas/711610/46 "2015-02-23T00:22:58Z")
Bumping this thread to note that the family has admitted that the story about being suspended for threatening to turn another student invisible was, well, false. [Instead](http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/texas-boy-feels-bad-magic-ring-suspension-article-1.2106901), according to the school: > [@](#): > > Aiden told “another student that he was going to put his rings around his neck and hope he died.” Whether that’s enough to justify a suspension is arguable, I suppose, but certainly it has nothing to do with magic. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2015, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-one-ring-located-in-kermit-texas/711610/47 "2015-02-23T00:52:26Z")
This is my shocked face. Yeah, so it turns out that teachers on the whole AREN’T hysterical no-tolerance humorless gits out to ruin children’s lives. Teachers AREN’T the sort to take a small everyday incident and drum it up into outrage. No, that job belongs to local news reporters. It’s unconscionable that the reporter sent the story out without first asking to see the letter of suspension. That should have accompanied the first story on the subject. As for posters here, including the OP, who took this story sans grain of salt the first time, I hope you’ll be a little more skeptical next time a kid gets suspended for having a ring of power. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2015, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-one-ring-located-in-kermit-texas/711610/48 "2015-02-23T02:50:49Z")
> [@steronz](#): > > If we’ve learned nothing from the dozens of RO stories that have come before this, it’s to either withhold judgement until the other side comes out, or to ignore clickbait articles. You mean Obama hasn’t condemned millions of Americans to death? What a relief! ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2015, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-one-ring-located-in-kermit-texas/711610/49 "2015-03-03T03:31:32Z")
> [@steronz](#): > > Half the time with stories like these, the parents go to the media and completely misrepresent the actual reason for the disciplinary action. The other half of the time, the school is overreacting over something dumb and the parents are only _slightly_ misrepresenting the actual reason for the disciplinary action. If we’ve learned nothing from the dozens of RO stories that have come before this, it’s to either withhold judgement until the other side comes out, or to ignore clickbait articles. I allege that it is impossible for a lot of people to actually withhold judgement, and I find it unnecessary to do so on things that don’t matter. I find the cynicism that comes with constant skepticism not to be worth it. Use it as a tool when it matters, and just let your natural judgments happen otherwise. Just don’t actually do anything said judgments. ---
**Author:** ![get\_lives](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ecb155/32.png) [@get\_lives](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/get_lives)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2015, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-one-ring-located-in-kermit-texas/711610/50 "2015-03-03T03:38:18Z")
> [@Clothahump](#): > > I love my state. It is the best state in the union. > > Except for all the religious whackjobs. Why did they have to settle here? Wait, are you whooshing us? LOL ---
**Author:** ![steronz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steronz/32/11765_2.png) [@steronz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/steronz)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2015, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-one-ring-located-in-kermit-texas/711610/51 "2015-03-03T14:22:24Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > I allege that it is impossible for a lot of people to actually withhold judgement, and I find it unnecessary to do so on things that don’t matter. > > I find the cynicism that comes with constant skepticism not to be worth it. Use it as a tool when it matters, and just let your natural judgments happen otherwise. Just don’t actually do anything said judgments. I disagree, and everything you wrote just sounds intellectually lazy. I know it’s a small thing, but this is how the fringe media works to distort peoples’ perceptions. I don’t necessarily want to pick on one ideology, but I have conservative co-workers who consume stories like this almost daily and it’s helped shape their worldview that the PC-police are “pussifying” America’s youth. They complain about how America is in some dire downfall, despite all real data pointing to the contrary, and little stories like this just help buttress that mistaken impression. I can debunk a story here and there, but as long as this sort of BS feeds their confirmation bias I’ll never win the war. That’s not even getting into how Nancy Grace and internet doxxers can ruin someone’s life by acting on one-sided BS. I know you might not doing anything, but when a story like this spreads, some percentage of the population is going to look up an email address or phone number. I’m 100% sure that this principal and school board has been inundated with hate mail about this issue, and they have better things to do, not to mention the psychological toll of getting constant attacks from morons. You might not be sending that hate mail yourself, but on this sort of issue, you’re either part of the problem or part of the solution. ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2015, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-one-ring-located-in-kermit-texas/711610/52 "2015-03-03T15:24:32Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > This is my shocked face. > > Yeah, so it turns out that teachers on the whole AREN’T hysterical no-tolerance humorless gits out to ruin children’s lives. Teachers AREN’T the sort to take a small everyday incident and drum it up into outrage. No, that job belongs to local news reporters. > > It’s unconscionable that the reporter sent the story out without first asking to see the letter of suspension. That should have accompanied the first story on the subject. > > As for posters here, including the OP, who took this story sans grain of salt the first time, I hope you’ll be a little more skeptical next time a kid gets suspended for having a ring of power. I posted deliberately in MPSIMS because I was riffing on the content of the story, as opposed to vouchsafing its accuracy. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-one-ring-located-in-kermit-texas/711610.md?page=2)