Girl expelled for journal entry changes school
Somewhere in the debate over how to deal with today's security issues in our schools, the ideas of reasonableness and proportion got lost. In an effort to protect everyone from everything, the concept of "Zero Tolerance" has morphed and expanded into a "we're afraid of anything new and different, so let's just ban it" philosophy that has been allowed to become a parody of itself.
Granted, I understand that the security environment in today's schools is much different than 25 years ago when I was a senior in high school. In that day and age, my idea of violence was a snowball fight. I recognize that we live in a much different world. What I do not accept is the idea of a "one size fits all" disciplinary philosophy with no room for flexibility or interpretation.
There are two perfect examples of "Zero Tolerance" run amok:
1) A 15-year boy, an asthmatic who carries an inhaler, loans his inhaler to his girlfriend, who is also an asthmatic and has left her inhaler at home. When she suffers a serious asthma attack, the boy does what any of us would do: he came to her aid. Of course, school officials saw this differently- as the distribution of a controlled substance on school property. So what was the boy supposed to do, recognize the unbending primacy of the rule and possibly allow his girlfriend to die? That appears to be exactly what school officials expected, because they expelled the boy from school. In the end, they settled for "only" a two-month suspension, but the message sent was clear: "Zero Tolerance uber Alles." The boy, who should have been lauded as a hero, was treated like a criminal. Fair? Of course not, but the school's administration can now hold up his case and say, "You see? "Zero Tolerance" works!"
2) A 14-year-old girl is expelled from her high school for writing "a fictional account of a student who falls asleep in class and dreams of killing a teacher". This is a girl who, by all accounts, is a good student and a generally well-adjusted teenager. So, what exactly was her crime? Aren't our schools supposed to be about opening young minds to the wonders of the world around them? Of course, in today's post-Columbine paranoia, she may well be guilty of expressing a thought that is politically incorrect, but does that warrant expulsion? When did thinking become a crime in our schools?
I understand how these incidents could be misinterpreted by someone making a purely knee-jerk reaction, but when did school administrators lose their ability to be reasonable? What sort of lessons are we teaching our children here? That rules are rules, circumstances be damned? That critical thinking and interpretation have no place in rules enforcement? That your life can be ruined by the simplest and seemingly most innocent of actions? That adults are more concerned about covering their asses than protecting children?
Yes, we need to be certain that our children have a safe and protected environment in which to learn and grow. No one would dispute that reality. Still, while "Zero Tolerance" is in theory a laudable proposition, I would submit that it has morphed into something that no one could have possibly anticipated when it was first instituted. "Zero Tolerance" is now less about protecting children than it is about protecting administrators and school districts from overly-litigious parents and their attorneys. "Zero Tolerance" has morphed into a Kafka-esque "Expel them all- let God sort them out so we won't get sued" philosphy. Administrators are terrified that if they begin to evaluate circumstances and make disciplinary decisions based on the merits of a case, they will then be left wide open for litigious parents to wreak havoc upon them. This is, of course, not an unwarranted fear, but does it justify the blind application of "Zero Tolerance" regardless of the harm it does to the children involved? I would submit that it does not, and that "Zero Tolerance" is merely a cover for adults who are too lazy or too scared to do the right thing.
Growing up is difficult enough for a child in today's world. They should not have to live in fear that an innocent action, thought, or oversight on their part could end up in expulsion. It's time that we as adults and parents demonstrated zero tolerance for "Zero Tolerance." We cannot and should not allow fear, ignorance, and reaction to rule our children's educational experience.
