Why “Zero Tolerance” Is Stupid, Yet One More Example Dept. (Updated) 3
Honest to Pete:
After handing out the slices, the teacher promptly turned the girl in for bringing a “deadly weapon” to school, her parents said.
This is right up there with strip-searching a girl for possibly having a legal, non-addictive prescription drug.
If you follow the link and read the story, you’ll see that the school has already had second thoughts and is looking for some way out without conceding that the whole damn policy is bull-headed, stupid, and irresponsible.
And why, you might ask but probably didn’t, is the whole damn policy bull-headed, stupid, and irresponsible?
Because it takes no account of intent or behavior. A child who empties out a backpack to use on a campling trip and forgets to remove the camping jack knife when returning to school on Monday is treated with the same severity as the child with a seven-inch switchblade and blood in his or her eye.
But it is easier, I suppose, to make and enforce blanket policies than it is to think.
Guess school is no place for thinking anyway.
Afterthought:
Oh, yeah, and the News-Journal’s headline is an insult to the child and her family. It reminds me or when my brother (he was about five) nearly died from an electrical short in a transformer at a light pole in the front yard. All the volts were going down a guy wire to ground. He was frozen to the wire screaming and my father broke into a dead run and ripped him free.
All the local paper could think of for a headline was “Billy —- Learns about Eletricity.”
Addendum:
No charges. Apparently the school district figured out that she is not a menace to the public peace.
Furrfu.
April 3, 2009 at 8:29 am
There was a girl (read young lady) here who is a member of the Young Marines. She drove herself to school, parked her small SUV in the parking lot, & went to class. Later in the day, she was suspended because in the rear of the SUV were WOOD rifle replicas she needed for her practice meeting she had to go to after school let out. A six day suspension was her “punishment”, which was later removed from her record, after the school officials looked at the entire scenario. She was no threat. The replicas were in the back of her car & someone snooping in the parking lot reported it.
The school districts are looking for a way to change the blanket system that is ignorant & non-bending for certain situations, into something where the punishment can be made to fit the crime.
All I can say is: It’s about time.
April 3, 2009 at 10:36 am
Oh, yeah, and the News-Journal’s headline is an insult to the child and her family.
You could have ended that sentence after the word “insult” and been equally accurate.
All the local paper could think of for a headline was “Billy —- Learns about Eletricity.”
I think I still have that clipping somewhere. That incident probably explains a lot… That happened because DP&L failed to properly install one of those little glass insulators. Now the headline would be “Local Electric Utility Sued for Negligence.”
April 3, 2009 at 11:06 am
Oh, yeah, and the News-Journal’s headline is an insult to the child and her family.
You could have ended that sentence after the word “insult” and been equally accurate.
What I should have said was that you could reword that sentence to “Oh, yeah, and the News-Journal is an insult.” That’s probably more accurate…