Zero tolerance fun at our government schools
2007 December 17
A 10 year old girl at a Florida elementary school took a knife to school to cut meat that she brought for lunch.
“She did not use it inappropriately. She did not threaten anyone with it. She didn’t pull it out and brandish it. Nothing of that nature,” explained Marion County School Spokesman Kevin Christian.
Naturally the girl was arrested and charged with a felony, not to mention being suspended for 10 days.
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One should keep in mind that teachers and administrators have lobbied for laws that take away their discretion on discipline matters so they cannot be held accountable for the exercise of their judgment. It’s about saving face and protecting insiders, not about doing what’s best for students. In case after case, students are being harshly disciplined for breaking rules where there was no harm done and none intended. Students aren’t going to have respect for a system unless it makes sense. Just at the time in their lives when they need most to bond with, and trust, adults, students see the authority figures in their schools abandoning common sense and responding without compassion or discretion.
Under a policy of zero tolerance, any exercise in the kind of bad judgment kids are famous for could dash college dreams, cut the last tether keeping a kid in school or land that child in front of a judge. And while a student may escape the worst zero tolerance has to offer, what lesson has been learned in the process? That adults have absolute authority, but are also blindly obedient to an unseen power? That Big Brother is watching, and that there is no good explanation, no extenuating circumstance, no second chances? I think students learn from zero tolerance policies that schools are not safe for them. And it has nothing to do with guns.
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C
Thank God she did not have a fork or spoon too! Can you imagine the chaos she could have caused if they had them too?
Oh! Wait a minute, she had those with her too? But only the knife was the problem? Tilt!
It’s called ‘academentia’ and I am ashamed to think that my children are exposed to it … what have we done to ourselves … and our children?