“This zero tolerance crap REALLY fries me!”
Perhaps. But if you make allowances in one case you have to make allowances in all cases. In that case you might as well not have any policy at all.
That would be quite fine by me. Ever notice how the zero tolerance crap in our schools hasn’t actually stopped any school shootings, random plastic knife stabbings, or Swiss Army knife awl battles? All we ever hear about is pre-teens getting suspended for bringing plastic knives to school or butter knives from home to cut their meals.
There’s no malice of forethought or motive in the grand majority of these cases. They’re often mistakes, misunderstandings, or silly accidents that get these kids snagged and branded as “potentially violent.”
When kids were bringing .22s to school to shoot after class, there weren’t stories about mass murders. Matter of fact, most of the BS that’s come out of DC and the teacher’s unions since the 80s has been counterproductive and make schools into makeshift daycare penitentiaries.