But seriously, if you have to ask you will never know. This is more of a "you get it or not" thing, related to how HN's targeted demographic feels on such issues.

Personally, I was punished repeatedly in high school for things I didn't do, simply because the administration was extremely paranoid about my computer knowledge. The principal once threatened me with "blacklisting" (seriously) because they got infected with a virus and didn't know what was going on.

A lot of people in the tech community have similar stories. We tend to stick out in the wrong way while in high school.

What's really worrying is that when I was his age, it was just the school I had to worry about. I was sometimes harassed and threatened (and to be fair, encouraged in a lot of things) by the administration while at school, but that's where it ended. Now they're getting the whole system involved.

When a kid is brutally harassed over double nothing, we can both link with him AND cry for the experimental culture that is dying the death of a thousand cuts.

One-off events in the world don't really interest me. I believe that on any given day in the US, some public school administrator does something stupid where a student is involved. And also the majority of public school administrators are very competent and handle similar situations without blowing things out of proportion.

There's no evidence of a trend. This isn't a sign of a shift in culture or of the impending [DOOMSDAY SCENARIO].

I just ignore the headline and move on.