Zero Tolerance or Zero Common Sense?

[Signal-11]

The sad part is ftaok is right. the ZT policies going as far as they do is because people are way WAY to sue happy these days. They sue and cry discrimination and even when because one kid got a different treatment.

The problem with ZT is it tries to be a one size fits all and that is just to protect against being sued because the school can point to its rules and show that there is no difference between kids same punishment for everyone.

Zero Tolerance is ridiculous but the problem is that this is what a vocal segment of the parenting population wants.

The problem with selective application of ZT is that it has been demonstrated time and again that there is a portion of the student body that gets the short end of the stick - blacks. In fact, in almost every large scale study of administrative discipline in American schools, blacks are universally punished more harshly for the same infraction. This trend is so strong, it's almost considered an indisputable fact.

Despite what believers on either camp would like to be true, there is no simple solution that covers all the bases.

This is what should have happened all along.
Im sure the Beauracrats will be upset that the police state lost another customer.
But wait we do have the Fat police and Health insurance police on the horizon, soon they will be telling little johnny what he can and cant eat not just what kind of tool he has to use to shovel it into his mouth.

I pity your worldview. I imagine the view through your glasses would resemble a walk through a funhouse mirror room for me. The "bureaucrats" aren't the problem. In the case of ZT, the parents who run the board are the problem. But it's easier to blame some faceless administrator than trying to address the problems in society, isn't it?

 

[Ttownbeast]

It's the paranoia of the victim mind set, believing that passing more laws will increase public safety at the expense of the average individuals civil liberties. It is possible that at some point there might be psychological backlash in response to the compounding regulation.

 

[Signal-11]

It's the paranoia of the victim mind set, believing that passing more laws will increase public safety at the expense of the average individuals civil liberties. It is possible that at some point there might be psychological backlash in response to the compounding regulation.

And what about the vast swaths of the population that believe they're being victimized by the system? This cuts across partisan lines. Blacks in the inner city believe The Man is out to get them, just like rural fundamentalist Christians and several other demographics that are on display right here on this thread.

The problem isn't laws or the number of laws. It's people who fear what they don't understand. In some cases, that includes people who don't understand the law or the necessity of organizational systems.

 

[ctt1wbw]

Or it might just be that adults are bigger ******* than they want to admit. After all, they were scared of a little 6 year old kid with eating utinsels. I'd that being a *****.

 

[Antares]

As an update, the School Board ruled that the kid had no record or history of infractrions and was a great student. So, they allowed him back into school.

I heard this on the news last night.

 

[Mord]

heh, I had a small swiss army knife on my person most of the way through school, no one cared, I only ever used it as a tool occasionally.

The hysteria is insane, definitely zero common sense.

 

[whooleytoo]

Despite what believers on either camp would like to be true, there is no simple solution that covers all the bases.

Speaking as a moderator on another site and watching arguments over stories like these develop, I actually think the situation is even weirder than you suggest.

I think many take both sides of the argument, the old 20:20 hindsight approach.

If this thread was about a child stabbed with that knife (can't imagine it's that sharp, mind), and the 6 year old classmate who stabbed him had previously brought the knife to school and been let off with no fuss; a lot of people would have been raging how the school could have been so reckless in not punishing a student for bringing a knife to school.

But when the story is about a 6 year old eating lunch with that knife, I think the same people would be raging that the school would be so rigid about an eating implement, no common-sense applied etc. etc.

Damned if you do, damned if you don't..

 

[ftaok]

If this thread was about a child stabbed with that knife (can't imagine it's that sharp, mind), and the 6 year old classmate who stabbed him had previously brought the knife to school and been let off with no fuss; a lot of people would have been raging how the school could have been so reckless in not punishing a student for bringing a knife to school.

But when the story is about a 6 year old eating lunch with that knife, I think the same people would be raging that the school would be so rigid about an eating implement, no common-sense applied etc. etc.

Damned if you do, damned if you don't..

Absolutely true. And it's a damned shame.

I think in the end, in this situation, justice has been served. The kid ends up with a smaller punishment (3 to 5 days of suspension) for breaking the rule. I don't think anyone would disagree that he broke a rule, only that the original punishment was too harsh.

The administrators get their rule changed, so future infractions will be met with just penalties.

 

[Ttownbeast]

And what about the vast swaths of the population that believe they're being victimized by the system? This cuts across partisan lines. Blacks in the inner city believe The Man is out to get them, just like rural fundamentalist Christians and several other demographics that are on display right here on this thread.

The problem isn't laws or the number of laws. It's people who fear what they don't understand. In some cases, that includes people who don't understand the law or the necessity of organizational systems.

They are not that vast they are just the most vocal about their views they "believe they're are being victimized" which may not always be the case but since they speak the loudest it is assumed they represent an entire demographic. More correctly to avoid generalization "some blacks" would be the correct statement. Some inner city blacks believe the man is keeping them down; while other inner city blacks might believe that some blacks just need to get a job and stop bitching about things that might be their own fault.

 

[Simgar988]

I wonder if private schools are so strict. Or do they have more common sense.

private schools lime you're money so they are alot more forgiving. I went to one and after one thanksgiving, my dad drove my car home, and forgot to take the three shotguns out of my trunk before I went to school the next day. When I told my dean about it (real cool guy, drag races, a wild type) he told me to go drop them off at home but first he wanted to go out to the parking lot with me and check out what kinda guns they were.

Right down the street, a kid at a public school just got a 180 school-day expulsion for having a bb gun in his trunk. Funny how things work huh