Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2016/09/20/kid-who-found-a-knife-in-a-use.html
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Zero tolerance might as well be “zero braincells” for school districts that have these stupid policies. It boggles the mind.
If that administrator walked into wherever he buys his suits and they told him “they’re all one-size-fits-all” he’d be appalled. But yet he’s content to abdicate his duty as an educator by cowering behind ignorant blanket policies.
Fire his ass, and get the kid back in school.
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Exactly.
Zero tolerance is the dumbest fucking shit.
Fun fact, I’ve carried a knife in my pocket since 3rd grade. Hell I used a bayonet for a German skit (though I told the teacher I was bringing). I guess I’d have been kicked out if it were today.
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He learned a Valuable Lesson. Two actually!
“If you SEE SOMETHING, SAY NOTHING”.
“Do not trust Authority Figures”
Somehow I don’t think that is the lesson that misguided zero tolerance policies were MEANT to teach, but they are valuable lessons in today’s world.
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What the fuck did they expect this kid to do? He didn’t deliberately bring the knife. He turned it in as soon as he discovered it. Would they prefer he just carried it around in secret? Even if he did, he could still have been caught. There’s literally nothing he could do to avoid getting in trouble except conceal the knife and hope for the best, which is apparently still a safer bet than turning it in. Is that really the outcome that their idiotic zero tolerance policy was meant to encourage? I’m sure none of this even occurred to them for a second- why think when you can just robotically obey rules without any regard for who is affected and what lessons are actually taught?
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Jailed or shot. The poor kid is fortunate they didn’t call the police instead of suspending him.
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I think the lesson being taught is that the proper thing to do is to slip it into the pack of someone you dislike and then inform on that person.
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If we tolerate kids turning in knives what’s next, tolerate them turning in guns? Come on!
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We live in the safest times in human history, yet flip out over the smallest hint of danger.
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Become a school administrator so you can:
- Get paid the big bucks
- Never have to actually do any teaching
- Always get to interact with kids (and teachers) from a position of exceptional power
- Never have to exercise even a scrap of judgement or professional discretion, because zero tolerance
- Get paid the big bucks
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Except it’s even worse than that, since as it says, the punishment was reduced from the automatic 1-year down to 30 days.
So they’re already moving off of their arbitrary policy. But instead of giving it any thought at that point, they just picked another, slightly less upsetting, arbitrary number.
This administrator should be automatically suspended from their job for 100 years. We can review it later and maybe reduce that down to 35 years.
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I wish somebody would have asked the principal and the superintendent what the kid should have done.
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sounds like he’s ready for Trump’s America then!
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Me too. Well, eighth grade or so, anyway. It came in handy for things like decorating the high school gym for dances. Those assholes soon learned not to question my aesthetic choices.
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The mother of this kid should contact the ACLU or find some way to sue this school to force them to clarify this policy.
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If that administrator walked into wherever he buys his suits and they told him “they’re all one-size-fits-all” he’d be appalled.
I don’t know about that. Have you been to the Midwest? “One size fits all” is a feature.
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the school clearly show what he should have done
hide it
deep
in someone back
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Don’t other me with your medioccidentaphobia.
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Undoubtedly they did, and undoubtedly they received no answer.
The thing about “zero tolerance” is it creates zero legal liability. If this kid goes on to stab somebody, the principal can say, “Hey, we suspended him, not our problem.” The enormous rate of false positives costs them nothing.
Now check this out:
“discipline procedures are in our student handbook and are consistent with Coldwater Community Schools Board of Education policies which comply with the current laws of the State of Michigan regarding student discipline.”
This does not say “we had to kick him out.” It says “we get to kick him out.” Hey, we’re complying with the law.
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