Saved By the Bell isn't actually good.

Neither are Zero Tolerance policies.

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Fifth-graders in California who adorned their mortarboards with tiny toy plastic soldiers last week to support troops in Iraq were forced to cut off their miniature weapons. A Utah boy was suspended for giving his cousin a cold pill prescribed to both students. In Rhode Island, a kindergartner was suspended for bringing a plastic knife to school so he could cut cookies.

As somebody who was suspended as a Freshman for using a non-threatening turn of phrase, I can attest that Zero Tolerance is stuuuuuuuuuuupid. They amount to nothing more than a license for authoritarian social workers to act like the strict Law & Order gestapo they wish they were.

Is there any kind of necessity for zero tolerance against guns? Shouldn't tolerance for guns be determined case-by-case, and not actually require Zero Tolerance? One would think that bringing an actual gun to school, and not a water gun, is an unforgiveable offense zero policy or no.

Were you or have you been affected by zero tolerance in your own schools? How fast should this be gotten rid of?

Jam it back in, in the dark.

I see a lot of mentions of 9/11, but you guys remember that Zero Tolerance didn't really become a big deal until after Columbine, right?

How ya doing, buddy?

Originally Posted by Tritoch

I mentioned it since Columbine didn't really spur much actual change in my area like 9/11 did.

Heh, really? 9/11 wasn't even caused by kids.

My school district has a "college going" culture practically from Elementary School, though, so I guess they had to do everything they could to protect our precious juicy brains.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Originally Posted by Divest

Heh.

I remember being suspended from school for writing on my arm. I didn't write anything in particular, just scribbled a little bit on my hand and forearm.

They considered it "an act of depression and bad parenting." They used those exact words.

That should've been the part where you threatened to call the newspapers.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

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It should be said that with the budgets public schools are under, the sort of case-by-case basis thing you are talking about would stretch an already thin system. And what competent counselor would want to work at a school that pays so little?

It's a school not a goddamn court of law. It's not like these kids get to appeal decisions.

I was speaking idiomatically.

I suppose it is easy to engage in apologetics when you weren't suspended for doodling on the back of your hand.

Has it occurred to you that we could possibly change court policy so that schools have protection from litigation which they can reasonably prove they had no control over? Do I have to re-quote the article?

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In Rhode Island, a kindergartner was suspended for bringing a plastic knife to school so he could cut cookies.

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was suspended for bringing a plastic knife to school so he could cut cookies.

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a plastic knife to school so he could cut cookies.

A fucking plastic knife so he could cut cookies! They give kids pencils and those have a greater risk of being used to injure themselves and other kids. This isn't just a stop-gap it's completely retarded.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?