People are sometimes defined as possessing either book smarts or street smarts 8212; in other words, common sense. On a college campus, it is apparent there are at least a few students who lack the latter of the two.

During Super Bowl week, when campus was shut down for four school days, a few students decided it would be a good idea to “kill” some time by purchasing Nerf guns. Elementary school children play with Nerf guns in their backyards before they get over girls having cooties.

It is doubtful those elementary school kids would be allowed to bring their toy guns to school for recess. It would also be no surprise if a second grader was referred to a guidance counselor for pretending to shoot an imaginary gun with hand motions at his or her classmates.

What at one time would have been harmless fun during a snow day, unfortunately, must now be considered irresponsible in light of the recent shooting tragedies that have occurred on college campuses, such as in 2007 at Virginia Tech.

If you started writing a list of other activities to do on a snow day that do not include toy guns, it would be long enough to be considered a dissertation.

Is it really worth putting campus on lockdown because students driven by boredom were running around with toy guns and misidentified as armed gunmen?

That is beyond childish and beyond sidestepping common sense. It is also stupid.

Sports editor Ryne Sulier for the editorial board.