Zero Tolerance Strikes Again

That blows my mind! I mean, the kid did the right thing. But, after reading the article, it seems like we don't have the full story...at least, I hope that's what it is. Otherwise, you're right, that's just nuts!

That's crazy! We teach our children to the right thing and, in this case, it bites the poor kid in the a$$! Unbelievable.

Hmmm. There has to be more to this story, otherwise this is a pretty stupid move by the school.

Yeah, it is a stupid move by the school.

So was the itnelligent design fiasco.

So is the redistricting nonsense that kicks seniors out of the school they've known for one across town.

Since when are schools known for their intelligence?

Heck, a Taliban Spokesperson is a student at Yale right now. He was defending the murderous regime that killed women, blew up walls on top of homosexuals, and executed Christians, and... well, just about anybody who wasn't a Taliban. This dude doesn't even have a high school diploma, and they let him into Yale.

Anyway, schools tend to interpret rules stupidly.

AnneMarble said:

Unless there is something that was left out of the story (as often happens), this is freakin' nuts!

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More info:
http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060403/NEWS01/604030389

It looks like there isn't any more to the story, so it is freakin' nuts.

Rob

Example setting has gone too far. It's sending the wrong message to kids and doing the right thing. Now the right thing would be to conceal it? They are going backwards. Idiots!


Terri

Jcomp said:

Hmmm. There has to be more to this story, otherwise this is a pretty stupid move by the school.

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And that's surprising? Stupid moves are a given. sheesh.

Jcomp said:

Hmmm. There has to be more to this story, otherwise this is a pretty stupid move by the school.

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Sounds pretty much aligned with the ways schools are these days. Zero Tolerance- Zero Reason/Rationality.

Schools in America have become an authoritarian state. There is no little due process for kids these days.


An Aside:
I was once suspended three days for telling swearing while talking to a friend.
(I did not swear at the teacher)

When the teacher told me to go to the office, I refused. I felt that I had done nothing wrong by cussing in a casual conversation with a buddy. When she asked me my name, I said, "Jose Quervo. . . what's it to you?"

I was suspended for refusal to go to the office and providing false pretense of identifacation with under aged alcohol references. I got no due process at all.

Then again, I was extremely guilty. It was one of the prouder moments of my high school career.

Unique said:

And that's surprising? Stupid moves are a given. sheesh.

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Never said it was "surprising," just saying it's a stupid move if there's no more to the story, which appears to be the case.

In my Catholic High School there was nothing but bored, white kids drinking, and getting messed up on illegal drugs.

A boy lit up a marijuana joint in the middle of class, and got in trouble for "lighting matches" because the teacher had no clue what marijuana smelled like.

Kids freaked out because they dropped acid between periods, and came to class on a trip.

Kids bragged about drinking two beers before driving thirty miles to school (whether they actually did it, or were just talking s***, is open for debate, I admit, but don't you think this might merit further investigation?)

Yet, despite the rampant drug abuse all over campus, the big issue was the uniform. By golly, let's get out those measuring sticks to make sure girls aren't showing any leg whatsoever. Let's keep boys from wearing colored shirts that might show any slogan beneath their white collar dress shirts. Let's make sure everyone is wearing approved shoes, and shaving.

We had drug dogs come through, and we were given a weeks warning. Kind of defeats the purpose if the drug dogs always get announced a week in advance, no?

What did I do? I found a loophole in the dress code and started wearing ties and suspenders. Eventually, they had to change the dresscode to reflect the fact that rebellious youths like me were overdressing on purpose to subvert authority.

I also enjoyed watching the burnout of my drug-addled peers. When you find someone is going to be experimenting with drugs as a hobby, give them about three years and watch how this "hobby" has taken over their life, and destroyed many of the things that were good about it.

I took pleasure in their misery and suffering. I admit it. They were jerks.

I would have banned him for a month. Whittling? Are you kidding me? Do people actually still whittle?





Os.

One of my co-workers whittles wood but then he's like 70.

don't even get me started on being banned for a month....

this is about, what, the ten millionth ridiculous abuse of the system story in the last couple of years? it's not only in schools, obviously (my nephews in middle school had i.d. badges they have to wear), but in the workplace, too.

short story long, while working for delphi, i along with a couple dozen others were 'permanently laid off' (nice phrase, eh?), but being on the bubble, they recalled me after about two weeks. (i saw that one coming, having told everyone at work, 'well, nice knowing y'all, have a nice life and i'll see ya in a couple of weeks.') anyway, things changed in those two weeks, and for much worse. my very first day back there was a huge accident on the highway which closed all the lanes down. i managed to snake through the scenic route along with a thousand other people and arrived fifteen minutes late. i was actually the first to make it in so fast.

then they laid their 'no tolerance' policy on me and said that there was no reason they could possibly accept for my lateness (told me several hours later when my boss finally got through the traffic). so, they told me i was suspended for five daze. i said, 'great! see you jokers in five daze and, by the way, thanks for the free vacation because i WILL grieve this.' normally, this would be an open-and-shut case, they'd have grasped their mistake after the first day, sent me a certified letter calling me back and saying, 'we'll pay you for the first two daze if you don't grieve the whole thing,' and everyone would have been happy.

but, nooooooo.... the union completely caved and gave the company the ability to enforce *in house* suspensions while i was 'permanently laid off', meaning that i was suspended but still had to come to work. ??? anyone willing to explain the theory behind that, have at it.

i'm tellin' y'all, this country is going to hell, and it's people trying to save us from ourselves that are leading the way, imo.

btw, rosemerry, i've got a buddy from borington, where golfballs live in fear-- familiar with the delaneys by any chance?

no but I don't get around much. There are alot of old people here.

Florida, where America comes to die.

Oh, man, the business-world?


I knew it was time to go when my boss's boss used my Hyundai Accent GL as a blast-shield for her Jag during a fire evacuation because she kept wondering what would happen if the building exploded (which was a totally unrealistic fear over a minor electrical fire). She got real worried about her car parked right up next to the building in the reserved spot, though. She dashed in front of the firemen to pull it out, and then used my cheap little commuter car for her blast shield on the BFE other side of the parking lot, where I parked by myself, with no other cars nearby, to squeaze a little more walking into a sedentary day.

I loved how she always told me that she valued me as an employee. I think she meant that I was a useful body shield in case of guns and explosions.

heh heh heh.

my very last day of work (feb. 28, 2005, the last day workers who took the buyout worked ~ boo ya!), i went in a little early to say goodbye to some people on first shift (i'd gotten stuck on second after eleven years). i was repelled by a jerkass of a boss. as i walked away i said over my shoulder, 'i always thought you were a jackass.'

'what do you say?' he asked. 'hey, come here and say that again.'

so i did. looked him right in the eyes and said, 'i always thought you were a jackass.'

he shook his head and said, as if he were hurting my feelings or some such nonsense, 'i thought you were a better man than that. consider yourself on notice ('notice' is industry speak for 'you're in trouble, dude').'

'oh, well,' i said, 'do what you gotta do. it's my last day and i really don't give a sh*t,' and walked off. so, him knowing it was my last day, this guy puts me on notice. i've always wondered where they grow people like this.

my regular boss, who'd been studying to become a lawyer for about a hundred years, got on me about a week before that because i 'was restricting output,' to which i replied, 'it's the same thing i've been doing every day, doing better and more than anyone else who does this job, so what's the problem now?'

'you just need to do more.'

that's when my attitude kicked in. seriously, i just happened to be the best at what i did, which was kind of a specialty job. he just pisssed me off, so i said, 'you'll get what you get.'

well, i guess that pisssed *him* off, so he shook his head (see a pattern here?) and said he didn't want to have to fire me, but....

i literally laughed in his face. 'you can't fire me without going through the whole set of disciplinary steps.'

'oh, i can fire you--'

'no, you can't.'

'look,' he said, his face heart-attack red, 'i can make it to where you can't get your buyout money for six months.'

again i laughed. 'no, you can't.'

'yes, i can,' he lied.

'then f***ing do it.'

'i don't want to have to.'

'no, do it. if you can do, do it. but, i know you can't, so stop trying to threaten me. go ahead, put me on notice, send me home, i don't care. but you won't because you know you won't get any parts out if you do.' (amazing how well i remember this conversation, isn't it?)

okay, that doesn't have much to do with zero tolerance, per se, i just like telling those stories. but, ya know, i think there's zero tolerance and then there's zero tolerance, it all depends on whose underwear you're wearing.

When my older son was in 1st grade, they decided to make an example out of him. In fact, they said so outright!

He was always in the habit of sneaking matchbox cars or army men to school in his backpack. Sneaky little bugger, and I rarely caught him. He had this camping playset with a rubber Buck (type) knife. A RUBBER KNIFE, I say, with a blade that wobbled if you held it by the handle and shook it.

Well, his teacher found this toy and he was immediately hauled into the principal's office. Then I got the call. Dan was being expelled. NOT suspended, EXPELLED from first grade for...get this...you're gonna love it...Carrying a concealed weapon!

So I freak and ex-jerk freaks, and comes home from the ship in Norfolk - he was in the Navy. The school called in the cops. They called in social workers. They called everybody but the freakin pizza delivery guy. Little Dan was sitting there all bug-eyed having NO idea what was going on. When we got there, he was being interrogated.

I explained to them, "But to him it's just a toy! It's no different from his race cars or his action figures!" They didn't wanna hear it. We took it all the way up through the school board until they finally dropped it, but he ended up with a week of being suspended and a PERMANENT mark on his record - all for carrying a concealed rubber knife to school in 1st grade.

From that point, because ex-jerk was in the Navy, we moved a lot. Every new school had Dan filled with the hope that his teacher wouldn't come to him right off the bat and tell him that they KNEW what a bad kid he was and that he'd better not start anything in their class. Never happened, though. Every teacher he had until he was about 15 or so and was settled in one area for a while took that attitude with him.

One IDIOT teacher ruined my son's school record for years all because of

ZERO TOLERANCE

By the way...

THANK YOU, MRS. OL*V*R*O, TEACHER OF FIRST GRADE AT GLENWOOD ELEMENTARY IN VIRGINIA BEACH VIRGINIA, FOR SCREWING UP MY SON'S SCHOOL RECORD!!!!!!!!!!

gawd, THAT FELT GOOD!


ETA: ok, so I edited out part of her name. God forbid someone see that and think badly of HER.

You can only fight zero tolerance... with zero tolerance.

As soon as that happened, the parents should have gotten together and had every parent pull EVERY child out of school the very next day and not bring them back until the principle apologized. The school gets paid by the government for the number of hours each kid sits in their seats. That would get their attention by grabbing them by the wallet...