‘You whining, sniveling wussies… and your kids too!’

I was going to call this piece "Jeremiah Clifford For President." That is the name of the principal of a middle school in New Brunswick that had the balls and the good sense of authority to punish kids who didn't follow the dress code one day last December.

Did he paddle them with their pants down? Did he scream at them and threaten them with violence? Did he hang them by their belts from the blackboard on their tippie toes? Did he shave off half the hair on the side of their heads? Did he make them kneel for a half hour on grains of rice? No!

He made the poor little buttercups walk laps around the track. They were supposed to run, but there's no app for that on their smartphone, so they just ambled along the best they could. It was 50 degrees and dry.

It was an unusually mild December day just before the Christmas break and many of the kids didn't feel like following the dress code. So they were disciplined. Once it got back to some of the parents, oh the outrage! "How dare he, the barbarian?" Of course, the school district is being diplomatic about the complaints, but the superintendent did stand up for his principal. Thank God!

I don't know how the teachers and administrators do it everyday. Actually I do. They know if they just hang in there long enough, there's a nice 25 year long (or more) vacation waiting for them after a 30-year career.

That being said. My hats off to all of them for hangin' in there. And by the way, ALL of the aforementioned punishments were doled out to me and my classmates at the Catholic schools I attended when I was a kid. And no parents complained! Ah, the good old days.

More from New Jersey 101.5: