[OXENinFLA]

Bump

[xrp]

For government schools, zero tolerance = zero brain power required.

Complete dumbasses are employed in government schools.

[LiteKeeper]

INTREP - A modicum of sanity

[ladylib]

Maybe she should withdraw and look for a private school -- one that exercises a little common sense, like that girl with the tweedy bird chain did a couple of years ago. If I were her mother, I wouldn't want to send her back there.

TOO MANY STUPID PEOPLE IN AUTHORITY TODAY HAVE TOO MUCH POWER TO DESTROY YOUR KID'S LIFE FOREVER.

Think about it.

[PA Engineer]

Zero Tolerance = Institutionalized Child Abuse = Zero Accountability?

[Kit]

I live in Georgia and once long ago attended a great public school here. Now, you would not believe how ridiculous and obtuse most public school administrators are in this state. We have the NEA and the GEA to thank for this, as well as a fully operational Peter Principle.

There are some amazing and wonderful teachers still here, but the bulk of personnel are driven by PC agenda issues and self-aggrandizement. No wonder we're at the very bottom in the nation scholastically. It's sickening.

[freeeee]

Nice to see FReepers standing up for freedom of speech for a change.

[mikegi]

I hate to think of where I would have ended up if today's rules were in effect in the past. When I was in the sixth grade, a friend and I decided to collect our jokes together and make a "magazine" to sell to the other students. Our teacher somehow got wind of this and asked us if we wanted to open it up to the whole class for a project. We agreed and ended up selling 600 copies at 10 cents a piece to other kids at the school (we called it KORN Magazine).

Anyway, the story I wrote for the magazine was one where the kids attack the school and take it over. We kicked out the teachers, tied up the principal, dug trenches, etc. This was published! Can you imagine what would have happened to me if I were a kid today and wrote this??? Back then, I was only told to edit out some of the jokes that showed the principal in an especially bad light.

PS. I remember we took the proceeds from the magazine and had a class party at the local skating rink.

[thirdheavenward]

Zero Tolerance has always been about avoiding embarassment. Perhaps it even goes back to collective guilt mistakes(*). If one is in the spirit of saying that the the real tradgedy is not that kids might die, but that kids might die HERE, then at all costs one will try to prevent kids from embarrassing the school. The school board thinks: if it becomes public that a kid in the school writes about murder, paranoid parents may think twice about going to that school, and moving to that neighborhood - and buying that house, and keeping those property values up! The administration thinks: If I want my career to advance, the last thing I want is a school with a reputation of violence under my watch! So what is the best way for a school to distance itself from a "violent" student? Detention doesn't work - that's like saying "don't worry folks, we know how to fix the kid" and then their reputation would be on the line to fix the kid. No, suspension or something equivalent is the only way for a school to disown a student. Zero Tolerance policies are policies to eliminate embarassment.