Zero tolerance strikes again

These zero tolerance type policies just serve to reinforce the idea to young people that authority is arbitrary and unfair, and thus not worth listening to.

Reply

So you're buttering a sandwich and look at the clock - "oh I'm late" - you grab your school bag with your free hand and rush to the door (I presume she went without her sandwiches), realising you have a knife coated with butter in your hand what do you do:

a) put it back in the kitchen,
b) put it down on a free surface near your door,
c) hold it in your teeth whilst you unzip your bag and then stuff it in liberally spreading your books with butter?

Tall tales I reckon.

I think you have to have zero tolerance otherwise you get things like "well I was chopping some shrubbery with that machete and I ran out the house 'cause I was late for school".

Reply

I feel different situations deserve different "punishments" as well as "rewards." It's not just black and white. This kind of thing wants me to think in "gray" and my mind just doesn't work like that. Zero tolerance would never, in my mind work, because I feel each case is different. This case is beyond stupid.

Reply

Of course, pbhj. Because a butter knife is *clearly* exactly the same as a machete, and nobody in authority can tell the difference.

Then again, since it is the ones in authority making these silly policies, maybe they can't.

Reply

I would agree with "zero tolerance" insofar as it would require a hearing and some level of discipline. No way does it make sense to "expel" a child based on a zero tolerance rule that has a potential to be inadvertently / innocently broken.

There are important reasons why normally there is a lot of leeway when it comes to disciplining children. They often don't have the maturity to understand the potential results of their actions. This seems to be such a case.

Reply

You know the old saying, "The road to Hell is paved with good intentions."

Reply

Having Amber Dauge as one of my close friends could be the reason why I'm backing her side of the story. It could also be that the people that make these rules, although the rules are both silly and necessary at times, seem to make up their mind beforehand. Thus you have the perfect example of my school's principal to Amber Dauge.

Basically; the zero-tolerance is acceptable, but common sense is needed so you don't mix guilty with the innocent (and vice-verse.).

Reply

And if she'd taken the knife to a teacher as soon as she arrived at school and tried to explain they still would have gone way over board! Zero tolerance needs to have an "out-clause". Children make mistakes, accidents like this happen even to the best of us. Things fall off shelves and land in bookbags or even purses. Rather then having to try to hide it and then forgetting about it it would have been better if she where allowed to bring the situation to light and be excused from punishment. Any parent would be happy to go up to the school and pick up the offensive item. Common Sence doesn't seem to be a word in very many peoples vocabulary anymore!

Reply

I just stumbled across this site and read this story, this might be the most ridiculous thing I have ever read, no maybe the machete thing is. Anyway, I don't know where you live or how old most of you people are but this politically correct BS is what is ruining this country, plain and simple. I am 46 years old, grew up in the country where kids had guns to hunt and shoot tin cans with carried pocket knives in school and had fist fights, I rode in the back window of a 8 cylinder Chrysler and never wore a seat belt. I survived because we were not raised to be petrified of everything, we weren't raised to sue other people and be responsible for yourself. I don't need a sign to tell me it is slippery because my mother taught me to watch where I step. Why don't you all just stop worrying about everything, enjoy life and teach your children how to behave instead of making teachers do it, they are supposed to educate them in book smarts, as a parent it is our job to teach them common sense, right from wrong. Yes I have three children, all teenagers now. I have a college degree as does my wife, they were not latch key kids, they don't spend there time in front of a TV, the are each individuals and have their own ideals, I have taught them to defend themselves if provoked or attacked. I have taught them to disagree verbally if you think someone is wrong. This is America, if I don't like you I have the right to say so regardless if it offends you or someone else, I am an individual as are each of you! Should a child be expelled because chicken little can't handle the fact that violent things happen at times in our world. All the rules in the world will never stop the insane, maybe they should concentrate more on teaching people to be more tolerant of another individuals unique qualities instead of supporting team sports that encourage behaviour to pick on the "geeks" of the world and punish those who verbally abuse others as strongly as a kid who carries a butter knife by accident.
Frankly I think you are all nuts, pass a few more laws that don't really mean squat.

Reply

Pbhj, I agree. There, Im sure were other things the girl could have done with that knife. Was she carrying it onto the bus? Im sure she put it in her bag before then...couldnt she have left it? And if she didnt have any intentions of harming anyone...what if another student had found that who would use it? Its about safety...and in todays society children step all over authority and get away with too much...to many things go on at schools anymore. There are cases, however where this Zero tolerance is a bit much, such as hugging...but a knife...im sorry but i agree with them.

Reply

im afraid what all of your childrens will grow up to be, serial killers, perhaps or murdered by one? with no law, its chaos...look at other countries, murders everyday by the thousands...as said before, some laws are frivolous, but without laws we'd be another Iraq...just what i want...and Mike your right, its up to the parents to teach common sense, but at what age does a child develop common sense on there own?? not to take the knife to school with them, duh. I dont need a sign telling me not to carry a lighter on a plane, or bring a knife with me to school. Its unfortunate we need laws like these for the people who lack common sense.

Reply

I am in my second year of college, so it wasn'tt oo long ago that I rode the bus....I've done the same type of thing all the time! I had lots of younger siblings, so I'd be helping them or fixing them something and had to run out the door and without realizing it, had taken one of the household items with me! Glad I wasn't in that school district, I'd have finished school a year behind after being expelled...or worse ended up at an alternative school with REAL trouble kids.

Reply

are you people crazy ? zero tolerance is for people with no
common sense and for those too lazy or stupid to deal
with situations such as this . it was an innocent mistake!!
no one was hurt . what happened to FORGIVENESS...
what if GOD had a zero tolerance policy ? are any of you
perfect ? of course not. grow up and get over it..

Reply

Eeks, good thing it wasn't a sharpened pencil! You could put someone's eye out with that! Good thing THEY are not allowed in schools.

Oh, wait.

D'oh.

Reply

IT SEEMS TO ME THIS NATION IS BEING RUN BY CHICKEN LITTLES. ALL THEY DO IS PANIC AT SOMETHING THEY DO NOT THINK OUT , AND LEAVE THEIR HEADS W/ SO CALLED BRAINS IN THE DARK RECESSES OF THEIR ANATOMY. THESE MORON TEACHERS WHO PANIC AT THE SIGHT OF A LEAKY TOILET ARE REAL CLASSICS. EDUCATORS AND SO CALLED ROLE MODELS. ?????????? GET REAL.

Reply

The main thing these zero tolerance policies teach young people is that adults are idiots incapable of reason. Look at the idiot on this board who compared a butter knife with a machete. Or the other who said "what if some other student had found that who would use it?". It was a BUTTER KNIFE genius. The sharpened pencil that was mentioned could do much more damage. Not to mention a pen. Where are your brains? They're supposed to be used to REASON.

Reply

The way I see it, can be applied to several different aspects. of our legal system, and I suppose, our train of thought. Most very intelligent people have no common scense, and most people with a lot of common scence aren't extremelly intellegent, but they get by fine.In todays world, I see a whole lot of intellegence, but you very seldom see any wisdom. I believe wisdom comes more from the common scence side, but thats just my beliefs. but that batch don't really have much of a say in our society. This is a great example: How many times have you seen on AOL the questionair about who should we be the most worried about who has nuculear power. It always lists Iran, North Korea, and two others. Not one time have I ever seen the US in this list. Yet in the history of the world. Who is the only nation that has used that power on another country? We dropped two on Japan, but we set off 90 on top of the Nevada desert, and 1 in New Mexico. We finally quit testing during the Clinton administration because radiation is still comming to the surface and going into the atmosphere. Our answer to anyone that disagrees with our rules is lets nuke em. We are smart enough to make them, but we lack the wisdom to possess them. I'm more worried about us having them than anyone else. We have already proven ourselves.Our scientests are very intellegent, but in the same breath, they are very stupid, because they lack wisdom. Just like global warming. Have you thought of what ont atomic or nuculear bomb test does to the atmosphere. Why haven't anyone thought of it like this: The earth spins, that creates the mountains and the valleys. The canyons, and the whole layout of the earth. We as people are busy as ants moving the mohills and filling in the valleys to suite our own purposes. You have huge machines loading dump trucks every day around the world trying to make it seem flat to us, so it will be more usable. We have been doing it so long we've changed the natural layout of the earth, so we've changed the axis. Which is actually changing everything. But every day they keep it up. When we get it just right, mayby we'll spin plumb out of orbit, then I ask, what did we accomplish? Thats my thoughts. That and fifty cents will buy a phone call to tell someone who cares. Thanks for listening anyway.

Reply

I am SO GLAD I got through school before all this zero-tolerance nonsense got started. I carried a knife to school exactly seven times--and none was an accident. They were the seven days I had behind-the-wheel in driver's ed.

I live by a very simple, common-sense rule: Always leave yourself an out. i.e. Always have a ''Plan B.'' I knew I'd have to wear a seatbelt in the car, so I made sure I had a knife in my pocket BEFORE I put the belt on. It was a tiny thing, less useful in a fight that a ring of keys, but it gave me a ''Plan B'' if the buckle was jammed or obstructed.

Anad it isn't just seatbelts. How easy is it to get the ties of a hood or some other part of clothing caught on something? Especially in motion, where the person (especially a kid) could get hung up, or choke? Who's going to cut them free if no one has a knife?

I think anyone over the age of eight who doesn't carry a pocket knife is an idiot, and anyone who takes away that right believing ''they won't need it'' is a heartless fool.

Reply