A LAW IS ONLY AS STUPID AS THE PEOPLE WHO MADE IT.

Most of us obey laws and regulations. It’s often what keeps society functioning and civil. Occasionally government goes too far when insisting on conduct that is unreasonable and trivial. It’s indefensible to insist on citizens obeying laws like: being fined for saying “diphthong” in mixed company; making it punishable to play pinochle with a bunch of celery; and being put on America’s Most Wanted list for wearing a parachute to an audience with the Pope.

Seemingly intelligent committees and agencies pass rules that cannot be justified or defended. The Chicago school system wins the gold medal for witless and dull-witted requirements of students in its system. To wit: Most high school students eagerly await the day they pass driver’s education class. It’s the first step to independence and freedom for many pimply faced teens that should be beaten with a bat. It’s an opportunity for them to join their parents in collecting DUIs. However, there is a 16-year old female student is indifferent to the opportunity of getting driver’s license.

She is blind, yet she and dozens of other visually impaired sophomores in Chicago schools are required to pass a written rules-of-the-road exam in order to graduate – a rule they say takes time away from subjects they might actually use. “In other classes, you don’t really feel different because you can do the work other people do,” she said. “But in driver’s Ed, it does give us the feeling we’re different. In a way, it brought me down, because it reminds me of something I can’t do. I was so upset I threw away all my Stevie Wonder CDs.”

Hundreds of school districts in Illinois require students to pass driver’s Ed, although the state only requires that districts offer the courses. A state education official says districts that require it should exempt disabled student. “It defies logic to require blind students to take the course.” Perhaps Chicago education officials believe that this girl and other visually impaired students are faking it. They’re really not blind – they just like using a white cane and having a seeing-eyed dog lead them around.

A Chicago Public Schools official said the district would be open to waiving the requirement but don’t want to start a precedent. If they start down that slippery slope then deaf students won’t be required to take musical harmony classes in order to get their diplomas or a disabled boy with one leg might try to opt out of gym class. “I would have won the 100-yard dash in the last Olympics if it wasn’t for my wooden leg.”

The Chicago school official insists that disabled students can, by law, request a change in their child’s individual education plan, which could include a driver’s Ed exemption. The truth is an eagle or owl couldn’t find that in the fine print. Off the record some insiders say that many in the government don’t want to change the regulation because the rules have already been printed and it would be a waste of taxpayer’s money to have to redo them. And that if the visually impaired students really wanted to take the test they could squint a lot.

Could it be as simple as the refusal of people to admit that they were wrong and made a mistake that keeps these feeble-minded and foolish laws and regulations on the books? Whoops! If that is true than that would explain the junk coming out of Washington.