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Monday, March 20, 2006
Zero Tolerance For Zero Tolerance?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
For a few years after Columbine, there was one outrageous news story after another. Child suspended for this and expelled for that, often so-called crimes where the intent was hard to find. I fielded calls from a mother who said her son brought a ziplock of flour to school for a science experiment and ended up in front of a tribual. (Turned out he also had a lighter in his pocket, which didn’t help his cause.) There was the high school girl who drove her brother’s pickup to school without realizing there was an ax in the bed underneath a drop cloth. And don’t get me started on gang colors and how many Moms have called swearing their child was not in a gang but happened to wear the offensive colors. Oh yeah, those red lasers. I got a call about a kid suspended for assault or something like that because he shined a laser in someone’s eye.
In some cases, common sense does prevail. DeKalb’s former superintendent Renie Hallford once overturned a principal’s decision to suspend a child who brought a tiny plastic gun to school.
And I have to say, I don’t get nearly as many zero-tolerance-gone-crazy calls as I did in the years following Columbine.
School administrators are under tremendous pressure to make sure their schools are safe, and they are not mind-readers who know what kind of scheme a student might be cooking up. But … the zero-tolerance mindset has clearly triggered some over-the-top punishments for students with no intent to harm.
Parents, teachers, students, have you gotten caught in a zero-tolerance alternate reality? Have schools lightened up somewhat in recent years?
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