Zero Tolerance policies — where (in the instance of schools) being caught with anything that could be used by someone in some strange, parallel universe as a weapon, or carrying (let alone, my God, sharing) OTC medications, or other such heinous crimes, is punishable by suspension, expulsion, or flogging — continue to come under fire.
Interestingly enough, conservatives, who once led the charge for ZT, are realizing how really stupid these laws and regs are.
It’s still an uphill battle, though, as legislators are concerned that backing off from ZT might make them look “soft on crime,” and as administrators of the laws worry about being stuck with the responsibility to act responsibly, not the comfort of having a knee-jerk reaction to rely on. Take for example the experience of this Virginia legislator who tried to get his statehouse education committee to take some reasonable steps.
Marrs sought no revolution; he proposed only that exceptions to the zero tolerance rule be carved out for students who defend themselves, children caught possessing a plastic cafeteria utensil without threatening or attacking others and students who possess a nonprescription medication with a parent’s permission. “On any given day, any number of teenage girls are walking around with a Midol in their pocketbook,” Marrs said. A crime worthy of expulsion?
But a procession of lobbyists representing principals and school boards defended zero tolerance as our last line of defense against terrible children eager to turn schools into war zones. A member of the Henrico County School Board, desperate to save a system that teaches children the opposite of discretion, even played the terrorism card, arguing to lawmakers that plastic utensils are a primo tool for budding hijackers.
Marrs’s bill died in a 13 to 8 vote.
Still better examples of ZT run amok can be found in the article.
(Via OpinionJournal)