More zero tolerance idiocy
ALa has the story of a 10-year-old fifth grader in Ocala, Florida, who brought her lunch to school from home, a piece of steak — and brought a deadly weapon a steak knife from home to cut it.
She didn’t use the knife for anything other than its intended purpose — to cut her lunch — but a couple of teachers saw it.
But a couple of teachers took the utensil and called the sheriff. When deputies arrived, they were unable to get the child’s parents on the phone, so they arrested her and took her to the county’s juvenile assessment center.
“And we didn’t handcuff her or treat her like a criminal. But, we took her to the assessment center to be assessed,” said Capt. James Pogue, Marion County Sheriff’s Office.
School officials said it doesn’t matter what the knife was being used for. They said they had no choice.
“Anytime there’s a weapon on campus, yes, we have to report it and we aggressively report it because we don’t want to take any chances, regardless,” Christian said.
A lot of people would blame the school for idiocy, but I don’t. Me, I blame the lawyers! School boards across the country have instituted “zero tolerance” policies, to remove any discretion at all from teachers and administrators, not because such makes any rational sense, but because they are deathly fearful of getting sued.
Common sense (something which too frequently is the first thing to go when lawyers are involved) would say that, at the most, the teachers should have confiscated the knife and told the student she could have it back when she was dismissed for the day. But if you do that, and some real thug shows up at school with a knife intended to be a weapon, if he is treated differently, sha-zamm! instant discrimination lawsuit. And even if the school wins the lawsuit, they are out thousands and thousands of dollars in legal fees.
It is, quite literally, less expensive and less risky for the school to punish someone unjustly than it is to risk a lawsuit.
We shouldn’t be surprised in the least.
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Cross posted on Liberty Pundit.
nk:
School boards across the country have instituted “zero tolerance†policies, to remove any discretion at all from teachers and administrators, not because such makes any rational sense, but because they are deathly fearful of getting sued.
I disagree. Teachers and other school officials cannot be sued except for intentional or “willful and wanton” torts. This is not CYA. It’s political correctness. I’m sorry that the Sheriff did not exercise his discretion to tell the school to “grow some hair”, though.
18 December 2007, 3:27 pmYorkshire:
SCHOOL - 1957 vs. 2007
Scenario: Jack goes quail hunting before school, pulls into school parking lot with shotgun in gun rack.
1957 - Vice Principal comes over, looks at Jack’s shotgun, goes to his car and gets his shotgun to show Jack.
2007 - School goes into lock down, FBI called, Jack hauled off to jail and never sees his truck or gun again. Counselors called in for traumatized students and teachers.
Scenario: Johnny and Mark get into a fistfight after school.
1957 - Crowd gathers. Mark wins. Johnny and Mark shake hands and end up buddies.
2007 - Police called, SWAT team arrives, arrests Johnny and Mark. Charge them with assault, both expelled even though Johnny started it.
Scenario: Jeffrey won’t be still in class, disrupts other students.
1957 - Jeffrey sent to office and given a good paddling by the Principal. Returns to class, sits still and does not disrupt class again.
2007 - Jeffrey given huge doses of Ritalin. Becomes a zombie. Tested for ADD. School gets extra money from state because Jeffrey has a disability.
Scenario: Billy breaks a window in his neighbor’s car and his Dad gives him a
whipping with his belt.
1957 - Billy is more careful next time, grows up normal, goes to college, and becomes a successful businessman.
2007 - Billy’s dad is arrested for child abuse Billy removed to foster care and joins a gang. State psychologist tells Billy’s sister that she remembers being abused herself and their dad goes to prison. Billy’s mom has affair
with psychologist.
Scenario: Mark gets a headache and takes some aspirin to school.
1957 - Mark shares aspirin with Principal out on the smoking dock.
2007 - Police called, Mark expelled from school for drug violations. Car searched for drugs and weapons.
Scenario: Pedro fails high school English.
1957 - Pedro goes to summer school, passes English, goes to college.
2007 - Pedro’s cause is taken up by state. Newspaper articles appear nationally explaining that teaching English as a requirement for graduation is racist. ACLU files class action lawsuit against state school system and
Pedro’s English teacher. English banned from core curriculum. Pedro given diploma anyway but ends up mowing lawns for a living because he cannot speak English.
Scenario: Johnny takes apart leftover firecrackers from 4th of July, puts them in a model airplane paint bottle, blows up a red ant bed.
1957 - Ants die.
2007 - BATF, Homeland Security, FBI called. Johnny charged with domestic terrorism, FBI investigates parents, siblings removed from home, computers confiscated, Johnny’s Dad goes on a terror watch list and is never allowed to
fly again.
Scenario: Johnny falls while running during recess and scrapes his knee. He is found crying by his teacher, Mary. Mary hugs him to comfort him.
1957 - In a short time, Johnny feels better and goes on playing.
2007 - Mary is accused of being a sexual predator and loses her job. She faces 3 years in State Prison. Johnny undergoes 5 years of therapy.
18 December 2007, 6:24 pmArt Downs:
In a recent real scenario, the teen son of a friend of mine was suspended on another ‘zero tolerance’ bit of folly. It was at the Severna Park High School in suburban Maryland. It is in a rather well to do community,
The offense came on ‘hat day’, a school-sanctioned event. The boy wear a hat with a pin with the words ‘guns save lives’. For this he was disciplined. Help came not from the ACLU but from the NRA and an attorney was sent do deal with the moronic ‘educators’.
Had the boy worn s button with the message ‘gay sex rocks’ or ‘I Love NAMBLA’ would there have been any official reaction? Would the ACLU have intervened?
Perhaps there are double standards.
18 December 2007, 6:59 pmYorkshire:
Had the boy worn s button with the message ‘gay sex rocks’ or ‘I Love NAMBLA’ would there have been any official reaction?
There sure would have been, he would have gotten a medal, a social promotion to the next grade, and a tolerance scholarship to the lib college of choice.
18 December 2007, 8:07 pmArt Downs:
…Perhaps the current head of the ACLU might have invited him to an in-depth interview.
18 December 2007, 9:01 pmDana Pico:
NK: I did not mean to convey the impression that the teachers or administrators would be sued personally, but that the school itself would be sued.
19 December 2007, 6:36 amArt Downs:
but that the school itself would be sued. Dana
Quite often, wayward public officials act on their own, get sued, and the taxpayers get stuck with the tab.
Perhaps any such judgments should be against the individuals. Their pensions could be attached to reduce the burden on innocent taxpayers.
19 December 2007, 8:03 amArt Downs:
“Zero Tolerance” is a slogan that often masks arbitrary, capricious, and draconian overreaction by high-rade moons maquerading a ‘educators’
Heroin and Midol are both ‘drugs’ in the broad sense of the word. Should they both be treated equally in matters of discipline.
I attended a high school in a big city and it was not in the best part of town. It was common for some students to have a Swiss Army knife in their packet. I never heard of a stabbing. I kid going hunting might carry a shotgun into the school (that he carried on a Baltimore Transit Company bus) andleave it in the Office. One such student was the eponymous Bob Pepersack (of the Supreme Court decison Love vs Pepersack - Love lost). The school had a rifle team. No one ever got shot in the school.
Most of our teachers knew their subjects and often from a practical standpoint. While the emphasiswason engineering,not everyone went in that direction. Some of my fellow graduates went into medicine and even law. A few even became teachers, but only after learning a true profession. Some even went inot journalism, the most famous of such alumni was before my time and was Henry Louis You-know-who.
My involvement with a prank involving an inert hand grenade resulted in no punishment for me and the device was returned. Today, there would have been panic, lockdown, and a team of BATF goons sent out.
Have we really progressed since then?
20 December 2007, 7:27 amZero-tolerance vs. common sense:
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14 April 2008, 11:09 pmSouthWind13:
Are there some you wish you could stop saying? ,
23 October 2009, 9:37 am