It can't be easy being a school board member. In the olden days, it was much easier to create school policies.

Many of the policies made were vaguely worded and were up to the discretion of the teachers. Hardly anybody ever questioned the enforcement.Today, it seems everything has to be spelled out.Here's what we're talking about.As you know, virtually all schools prohibit smoking not only by students but also by staff members.What about electronic cigarettes?Apparently some people don't interpret them as smoking.Muncy School Board unanimously approved revisions to its three tobacco use policies last week to prohibit the use of electronic cigarettes. The policies apply to students, administrative employees, professional employees and classified employees."We knew this would become an issue that we'd have to deal with," Superintendent Portia Brandt said.Remember when the big dispute in schools was equal rights for male and female athletes?In California, another issues has caught the attention of state legislature.The California senate approved a state-wide K-12 transgender rights bill. The bill, AB-1266, would mandate that public schools respect transgender students' identity by giving them the right to "participate in sex-segregated programs, activities, and facilities" meaning that transgender students would finally be able to choose which restrooms to use and which sports teams to join based on their gender identity instead of their chromosomes.This bill is the first time that this treatment has been mandated by a state.In Phoenix, a strange man walked onto a school bus with several students on board, and then left a 9-millimeter fully loaded magazine in one of the seats.The school district now has specific requirements for adults riding the school bus.Now only adults with a school-issued photo ID will be allowed on the bus, and they have to sit in the front of the bus.District officials say the bus driver thought he was a parent a district spokesperson said it was not uncommon for parents to take the school bus to school events.A school district in Scotland banned Father's Day cards so children without dads wouldn't be upset. Mother's Day cards are still OK.What a changing - and sometimes strange - world that we live in.By RON GOWERrgower@tnonline.com