We live in a Zero Tolerance Society, page 2
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reply posted on 28-10-2007 @ 11:30 AM by Soylent Green Is People
Zero-tolerance policies exist simply because teachers and scholl administrators are too lazy and cowardly to make tough decisions that may require them to THINK a little.

They figure that if they put these zero-tolernance policies in place, then the policy will make the decisions for them when a child violates a rule. It takes too much thinking for a school administator to justly and fair respond to a child who may be a little out of line, or even make the tough decision to punish a student who really crosses the line. It's much easier for the lazy and gutless school administrator to hide behind the policy and say "my hands are tied -- the policy will decide the child's fate".

In this zero-tolerance world, people are no longer making the responsible leadership decisions -- they are leaving that up to the literal letter of the law. They are afraid to make tough decisions, so they let the policy do it instead.

In the real world we also have laws -- but we have judges who interperet those laws. In school there SHOULD be rules -- but school administrators should interperet those rules, not let the rule be the 'end-all' solution to a problem.

I think it's time for our school administrators to start acting like leaders, and start thinking for themselves, rather than allowing a rule to do their thinking for them.

[edit on 10/28/2007 by Soylent Green Is People]


reply posted on 28-10-2007 @ 11:47 AM by Soylent Green Is People
reply to post by andayt


That's like the story I heard about the Kindergartner who was expelled becuase of a zero-tolerance policy against toy weapons as part of a Halloween costume. The boy came dressed as a firefighter and had a plastic axe. The school claimed that the zero-tolerance policy left them no choice but to expell the boy, since an axe is a weapon.

To me, that axe was the firefighter's TOOL, not a weapon. A hammer can be used as a weapon. Would they expel a boy who came dressed as "Bob the Builder" if his costume included a plastic hammer?

Here are some examples of zero-tolernace policies gone wrong.
Scroll down to the entry "Zero tolerance under the microscope", dated Thursday, July 26, 2007:
www.tuccille.com...

[edit on 10/28/2007 by Soylent Green Is People]


reply posted on 28-10-2007 @ 12:46 PM by ArtemisFowl
LDragon I know how it is to go to zero tolerance school when i went to public school some kids i knew broke the laptop i was using so i panicked and put the laptop back
when they found the laptop and searched the records to find i used it last they called me up i told em who did it they pretended to listen and punished me and wouldnt let me use the laptops again
not only that but when they gave me a refferal they put it down that i used an unknown weapon they never even tried to catch the kids though i gave them the names and the computer teacher followed me everywhere around the halls

i believe that our freedom in america is dwindling that soon we will no longer be a democracy but a dictatorship. we should not fear the government the government should fear us. the power of the government is getting stronger if we keep obeying them then we will submit ourselves to communism. and if that is to happen then what our fore fathers fought for will be for nothing
if this zero tolerance policy does as you say and teaches them to obey without question. then soon the government will do what it always does. To instill fear into the public making them obey.
just like these commercials where children are asking what they should do in a terrorist attack. that commercial is being used to instill fear and sustain that fear that is being used to guide our war in iraq
on 9/11 we were supposedly(i say supposedly because this may or may not be true as the government is capable of lying)attacked by osama bin laden who was in afghanistan and may still be however george bush told us that there were WMD's in iraq that were never found or proven there by meaning that the government instilled more fear that made us want to take over iraq instead of killing osama bin laden which should have been our main goal all along


reply posted on 28-10-2007 @ 12:55 PM by starviego
Now here is zero tolerance on steroids:




5-8-05
12-yr old Girl Charged With Battery for giving another kid a fat-lip during a 'dodge-ball' type game.
ALTA LOMA, Calif. -- What started as a version of the schoolyard game of dodge ball has apparently become a legal ordeal for a 12-year-old girl and her family.
Complaints by the parents of a student injured during a game at Hermosa Elementary School prompted authorities to charge Brittney Schneiders with battery. .... Schneiders kicked a ball that hit a boy who wore braces, giving him a fat lip. .... Five other students also accused of battery stemming from the May 8 playground game opted to take probation, but Brittney Schneiders and her parents refused.
"I don't think I did (commit a crime)," Brittney told NBC4's Mary Parks. "I thought I was just playing a dodge ball game. I never thought it would come up to this level."
www.nbc4.tv...

--------------

2-11-06
Boy charged with felony for carrying sugar
A 12-year-old Aurora(Illinois) boy who said he brought powdered sugar to school for a science project this week has been charged with a felony for possessing a look-alike drug, Aurora police have confirmed.
The sixth-grade student at Waldo Middle School was also suspended for two weeks from school after showing the bag of powdered sugar to his friends. Two other boys asked if the bag contained cocaine after he showed it to them in the bathroom Wednesday morning, the boy's mother said.He joked that it was cocaine, before telling them, "just kidding," she said.
www.suntimes.com...


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March 2006
14yr old gets up to seven years(indeterminate sentence) for pushing hall monitor. (She was released after one year.) The story of Shaquanda Cotton, 14, of Paris High School in Paris, TX:
www.chicagotribune.com...

------------------

5-27-06
Two-Year-Old Cited by Police
A two-year-old boy has been cited by Jeanerette(LA) police for criminal damage to property, after allegedly throwing a rock at a vehicle. ..... (the boy's mother Tauwana) Harris says Tremell picked up a rock and threw it at a lady's truck and hit the back of it. Harris says the woman claimed he put two holes in it. She says she was allowing her son to apologize, when the woman jumped out and said 'sorry' is not good enough.
Harris says at that point, the woman called Jeanerette police. Officer Douglas Trump arrived to find Harris and the owner of the vehicle arguing. ........ She says the officer told her it would be on Tremell's record.
prisonplanet.com...

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12-20-06
Young Girl Facing Charges After Wetting Pants
(AP) DANVILLE, Pa. A 12-year-old special education student in Montour County was charged with disorderly conduct after authorities said she deliberately wet her pants at school.Her mother told the Press Enterprise it happened because her daughter was frightened by the principal. Her mother said when her daughter refused to go to the kitchen to wash some pots and pans, teachers summoned principal Kevin Duckwork, who confronted the girl.
She then wet her pants. Her mother said the girl is terrified of Duckwork and has wet herself during previous confrontations with him. But Danville Police Chief Eric Gill said school officials are at their “wit’s end” with the girl, and they believe her actions were deliberate.
cbs3.com...


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3-13-07 7-Year-Old Boy Arrested, Handcuffed for riding on sidewalk
BALTIMORE — Police arrested a 7-year-old boy, handcuffed him and hauled him down to the station house on a charge of riding a motorized dirt bike on a sidewalk.
Then, according to his mother, Gerard Mungo Jr. was handcuffed to a bench and interrogated before being released to his parents.
"They scared me," Gerard told The Baltimor Examiner before breaking down in tears.
Kikisa Dinkins said her son was sitting on the bike with the motor off on the sidewalk when an officer grabbed him by the collar and pulled him off.
"I told them to let go of my baby," Dinkins said. "Since when do you pull a 7-year-old child by his neck and drag him?""They started yelling at him, 'Do you know what you did wrong, son?'" Dinkins said. "He was so scared he ran upstairs." Dinkins said officers fingerprinted him and took his mug shot. Dinkins said the arrest scarred her son. "This has changed his life," she said. "He'll never be the same."
www.foxnews.com.../crime


-----------------

3-30-07
13yr-old arrested for writing on desk
A 13-year-old girl was handcuffed and placed under arrest in front of her classmates in Dyker Heights after she wrote "Okay" on her desk. ....she's been charged with criminal mischief and the making of graffiti.
Then she was handcuffed and led out of the school in front of her classmates and placed in the back of a police car."All the kids were ... watching these three boys and my daughter being marched out with four -- they had four police officers -- walking them out, handcuffed," Silva said. "She goes to me, 'Mommy, these hurt!'" The students were taken to the 68th Precinct station house where Silva says they were separated for three hours. "I'm watching my daughter, she's handcuffed to the pole."
wcbstv.com...


reply posted on 28-10-2007 @ 12:57 PM by LDragonFire
More flexibility and common sense is a common theme I have noticed researching this topic. To equate a toy gun, to a real gun or a over the counter medication to a illegal substance, and then have a blanket set of punishment is quite insane, and has no business being a part of a free society. We are not living in a free society, we are living in a fear based society.

These policies started in the 90’s and have evolved to what we have now. Take a look at a modern prison, walls and razor wire, metal detectors, video cameras, it’s a design clearly in place to control the population, Now look at our schools, are there any difference?

This is a story from 1999:
Under the school's policy, officials say, they were compelled to give the academic death sentence to Lisa, 14 - even if her only other trip to the principal's office was to organize an orchestra fund-raiser, even if she is, in the words of one teacher, "a sweetheart."

Lisa Smith's case is one of a growing number of examples in which zero-tolerance policies have been attacked as inflexible, harsh and lacking in common sense. The criticisms have increased in the past two years as zero-tolerance policies have become standard operating procedure in the nation's 109,000 public schools .

Supporters have credited zero-tolerance policies with helping make students feel safer in school, but such policies also have come under fire for their all-or-nothing approach. Even many supporters say the get-tough effort too often fails to differentiate between good kids who make the typical mistakes of adolescence and the unruly delinquents who can bring learning to a standstill.
Zero-tolerance policies lack flexibility


This is just one example with thousands, maybe tens of thousands of other examples, where these types of polices are not a Good thing. We are failing our children in an extreme way; we have turned our education system into a system of prisons. The following is a article from 2006:
"Zero tolerance" discipline policies that are enforced widely in U.S. schools are backfiring: They may be promoting misbehavior and making students feel more anxious, the American Psychological Association (APA) said Wednesday.
The group called for more flexibility and common sense in applying the policies, reserving zero tolerance for the most serious threats to school safety.
Zero-tolerance policies spread in the 1990s as a tool to fight drug use and violence on campuses. Schools often suspend or expel students for having weapons or drugs, which can include over-the-counter medicine, says educational psychologist Cecil Reynolds of Texas A&M University. Verbal threats, fighting or sexual harassment also can get kids booted, he says. "There are cases such as the kindergarten boy who hugged two classmates. His teacher reported him for sexual harassment, and he was suspended."
At schools, less tolerance for 'zero tolerance'


I’m getting many u2u’s concerning this, and my thanks to them and to the posters of this thread. We are headed in the wrong direction regarding these policies. The following is a story that is a good read that I received in one of the u2u’s: The Children's Story by James Clavell

Apathy will result in the death of freedom, and it’s already here, alive and well in our nations schools.
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