Thursday, September 18, 2008

Another reason zero-tolerance policies are stupid

File this under stupidity.  This is what we get from "zero-tolerance" policies.



Box cutter was for work, but to school, it's a weapon

A Blaine High School student was suspended for having the knife in his car, violating a weapons policy.

Last update: September 18, 2008 - 9:57 AM

A Blaine teenager has been suspended from school for 10 days and faces possible expulsion Monday after a box cutter was spotted in his car in the high school parking lot. Administrators invoked the school's zero-tolerance weapons policy, which allows little disciplinary leeway.

[Click through for more]


Expulsion because he inadvertantly left his box cutter in his car instead of returning it to a locked cabinet at home immediately after work?

It's so easy to just have so-called "zero tolerance policies."  When parents and school boards force this on to school administrators, this is what you get.  We now live in an age where school administrators understand the seriousness of school violence.  Why don't we trust them to make rational distinctions between real threats and stupid incidents like this one?



1 comment:

Derek said...

I'm not sure I would describe "Zero Tolerance" as a liberal policy, poppycock or not. It seems to arise out of the "get tough on crime" approach of conservatives. Even so, one can find plenty of "poppycock" liberals AND conservatives supporting these inane policies.