BB Gun at School So I heard this one on the news this morning. I guess it was never taken out of the car or anything. What the heck? So is this taking the zero tolerance thing a little bit off the deep end?
Posted by Hobbes (Member # 433) on :
No, this is taking zero tolerance over board:
Some elementary school girl in my school district (I was in high school at the time) brought the lunch that her mother made for her to school. Her mother had accidentally switched her own lunch with her kid's; well the mother always brought a very small knife in her lunch to cut her apple with. So when the girl opens her lunch she finds the knife, gets surprised and nervous, and immediately walks over to the teacher in charge. She was suspended on zero tolerance policy for bringing a knife to school.
Hobbes Posted by Jane_Lane (Member # 7665) on :
Wow - I used to take swords into school without getting into trouble...
Anyway, what qualifies as a weapon in American schools? Is it knives and guns?
Posted by Jay (Member # 5786) on :
Yeah, I can remember the whole ninja throwing star craze. Those things would do way more harm then a BB Gun.
Posted by Goo Boy (Member # 7752) on :
Hobbes's example is definitely overboard.
I don't know that the first one is so clear cut.
If this is a kid who does not regularly get into trouble, then the ten day suspension and expulsion is going overboard if the explanation is that he forgot it was in his car, and he never took it out at school, but I think there needs to be a consequence. Maybe a shorter suspension.
The reason we have zero-tolerance policies is that people in authority have a tendency to accept excuses and mitigating circumstances, making our schools and courts impotent. Nobody wants to be "mean." Pretty soon you have people who really do mean to do bad things getting off with creative excuses.
There is a slight contradiction in bemoaning the weakening of our standards for behavior while complaining about mandatory punishments which don't take mitigating circumstances into account. Clearly, the ideal is somewhere in between, but this is an attempt to swing the pendulum back from a dangerous extreme. Most of the reality behind it is not as innocuous as a little girl whose mom accidentally packs a knife in her lunch.
Posted by TMedina (Member # 6649) on :
Depends on the person doing the interpreting.
Knives of any sort, guns of any sort, things designed expressly to injure - brass knuckles, ASP batons, etc.
I don't know that I'd object to the BB gun issue - even if the weapon itself wouldn't cause much injury and I say much even though I wouldn't want to get shot with one, the sight of something resembling a firearm would send up alert signals, panic students and require the police to be called in. A student or teacher could easily be hurt in the ensuing chaos.
One kid got busted for having a machete in his trunk - mind you, the teen also ran a lawn-care service after hours. Again, just in the realm of overreacting, but not by much.
However, in Macon, Georgia - a student got sent home for wearing, I kid you not, the Star of David.
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