“Some school administrators argue that it is difficult to distinguish innocent pranks and mistakes from more serious threats, and that the policies must be strict to protect students.”
From a New York Times article a six-year-old boy who suspended from school for 45 days after bringing “a camping utensil that can serve as a knife, fork and spoon to school.” He was reportedly excited about joining the Cub Scouts that he wanted to use it to eat lunch. However the utensil violated the school district’s zero-tolerance policy on weapons and the 1st grader “faces 45 days in the district’s reform school,” the paper reports.
A commenter on the Times message board nails it: “A little common sense would go a long ways in this life. What would be wrong with telling him that’s nice, you’ll keep it in your desk and your Mom can come pick it up, and don’t bring it again.”
Gee, ya think?
45 days in reform school? For a 6-year-old who didn’t actually harm another child or even tried to? This is what our society has come to?
In most cases, it’s NOT that difficult. What it does take is common sense and backbone, both of which seem to be seriously lacking in school administrators. Of course, far too many lawyers are involved on both sides of decisions/policies. However, this situation is ridiculous, as are the ones involving administrative inability/unwillingness to differentiate between a student bringing or taking a tylenol and a student bringing or taking illegal/addicting/dangerous drugs. And they wonder why they are not respected?
The basic logic (if it can be called that) of zero-tolerance policies is “we don’t trust the judgment of adults, we’ll punish kids.”
If the district doesn’t trust its principals to know that the appropriate response to situations like this is a call to the parents, not a suspension, I’m not sure how they trust them to actually run a school.