God Gave a Goose: A Continuing Series

One of my favorite expressions, that I think I inherited from my sainted mother, is, Fill in the blank, doesn’t have the sense that God gave a goose.  Here is the latest incident that elicited that phrase from me:

A Minnesota public high school was so committed to obeying its fire drill policy to the exact letter of the law that it forced a female student–dressed only in a swimsuit, and sopping wet–to stand outside in the freezing cold for ten minutes. As a result, she suffered frostbite.

Administrators wouldn’t let the student retrieve her clothes, sit in a car or wait inside another building, according to WCCO.

The trouble began when a small science experiment triggered the fire alarm at Como Park Senior High School in St. Paul, Minnesota. Fourteen-year-old Kayona Hagen-Tietz was swimming in the school pool for health class at the time. Her clothes were in her locker, and a teacher told her that there was no time for her to change. Hagen-Tietz was rushed outside–still wet and dressed in only (a) swimsuit.

It was 5 degrees below zero in St. Paul that day. With the windchill, it was 25 degrees below zero.

Hagen-Tietz asked to wait inside an employee’s car, or at the elementary school across the street. But administrators believed that this would violate official policy, and could get the school in trouble, so they opted to simply let the girl freeze.

Her fellow classmates, at least, huddled around her to try to keep her warm. And one teacher did eventually lend her a coat.

Still, Hagen-Tietz came down with frostbite on her feet, according to her mother, Eva Tietz, who took her to the doctor as soon as she found out what had happened.

I have spent my life explaining to people that common sense doesn’t necessarily fly out the window when Law enters the picture.  The defense of, “I was only following orders” didn’t work for the Nazis and should not work as a shield for boundless stupidity.  Honk!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xM1vdEAWHhg[/youtube]