Wait 'til they realize that you can drill out a pencil and hide stuff in there too.... Then the student will only be allowed to write with crayons, until they realize... Oh nevermind... they'll never learn...
Sheesh... back when I was in school an exploding pen meant you had leaked ink everywhere. But overall it sounds like a reasonable course of action, given that a pen was used to make an explosive device.
The stupidity of this reaction. Some item is misused, it must be banned. It is an easy solution that requires absolutely no thought at all, that's all it is.
I wouldn't call this one being a nanny state. A permanent ban would be, but a temp ban while making sure that no others have explosives in them is being cautious.
Yup!! I can think of a lot of things that can explode but I see everyday. You don't even have to leave your house.
This one is ok in my book. Read some more of the related stories to see why. So more is going on here than just a couple of kids that played a prank that went further than intended. Sounds like something funny was going on. At least the reasonable potential for something funny. Snag all the pens in case these kids placed others around the school or with other kids. Now if the ban stays in place moer than a week or two... well that's starting to take things too far.
Where did they get high enough quality TATP to make a pressure explosive that could "seriously injure" someone in small enough quantities to put it in a pen?? You can (supposedly) make it from household chemicals (not that I'd know or anything, but Google does!) but it can be tough to get it right. Theoretically speaking, of course. Most of a degree in chemistry comes in rather handy at times. That stuff's pretty volatile, and pretty unstable, but it should be hard to come by...
It just kinda occurred to me, I'll probably be a useful guy after the Apocalypse... get me a medicine cabinet, a paint or hardware store, and some fireworks and I'll be set for making all kinds of fun stuff! /talking to myself //all purely hypothetical, I'd never dream of knowing how to make big booms