GOP: Zero Tolerance

[Talierin]

Okay, what do you all think about Zero Tolerance Policies in schools? I pretty much think they're stupid, since if you think about it, they'd have to ban pencils and pens because you can stab people with them. Besides, is having a pair of nail clippers a security threat?

[daisy]

Tal,

I think it depends on where you go to school. I am a teacher at an inner-city school in a low-income area in Toronto. We have already had the swat team visit us because students entered the school with guns. Kids walk around with exacto-knives and scissors in their pockets. So, in my mind, it is absolutely essential to have this policy, and because you can't have it in one school and not all, because that violates the charter of rights, you need to do the whole thing.

Recently, a girl was stabbed in the washroom of her school by a jilted boyfriend. They were thirteen years old. Unfortunately, times are tough.

Columbine????

And Courtney, i don't think you are immature about things. It is hard to accept things that are painful or sad.

And in terms of racism being a 'grudge' or something, this is too tame an analogy. And I do not believe having opinions that are hateful, exclusionary, and dangerous to be okay. This led us to Nazism, slavery etcetera, not to get tooooo heavy...

:(

[Tar-Ancalime]

I think zero-tolerence is a tad extreme.
For instance, these guys had a fight...and no one got hurt cause they cant fight worth ****.
However, in a chic fight at the highschool, these girls were ripping out hair.
I think it should be to different degrees

[daisy]

Can I just remind people also about what is possible with a few box cutters????:(

[Tar-Ancalime]

and my hands, anyones hands I have a quote from LOTR
(tear i had to open my x-mas book for this)
"Dangerous" cried gandalf. "And so am I very dangerous: more dangerous than anything you will ever meet, unless you are brought alive before the seat of the dark lord. And aragrorn is dangereous and Legolas is dangerous. You are beset with dangers gimili son of gloin; for you yourself are dangerous in your own fasion. Certainly the foret of fangorn is perilous-not least to those who are too ready with axes; and fangorn himself , he is too perilous; yet wise and kindly none the less...
you see my point

[Dengen-Goroth]

Columbine, Columbine, Columbine. Yes, it happened, and yes there are security risks. But basically it all comes dow to the family in all of this. This is, of course, a bit of topic, but if the parents of these children nutured, loved, and cared for their children do you really think that they would go to schools and kill their fellow classmates? I just want to open a side topic, what is the status of families in America compared even to fifty years ago. A lot of times, when Children are neglected/abused by their parents, and can't find love at home, where it is most needed, they will end up looking for it in the streets=gangs,drugs, etc. If they can't find a sense of belonging there they get frustrated, reclusive, angry at themselves and the world. They at that point either kill themselves, or take out their frustrations on their peers and even their parents. I remember that I was very afraid to go t my Middle School, because a person there fit the exact descriptions of a killer. he had unauthorized guns at his house, he was angry and depressed, and hated me and my friends. Eventually the guidance counciler talked to him, but he comes from a disfunctional family. So when we look at these policies, remember that they are to protect you. (I know, I tied that in not to well). The policies that the schools put in place are to protect us, and still there can be dangers. Though a line must be drawn somewhere...

[Asha'man]

Zero-tolerance is BS. Remember the girl in Florida last year who had a kitchen knife under the seat of her car? Her family had been moving a week or so earlier, and the knife fell out of a box. Somehow (and I'm not even sure why this was) her car was searched (without a warrant, no doubt) and the knife was found. This girl was a couple weeks away from graduating (honor-roll, no less), and she was expelled and didn't get to graduate. What harm was she going to do with a knife that she didn't know was there?

Or nail clippers? I couldn't hurt someone with nail clippers if I tried, unless I poked them in the eye with a folded pair. And I could do that with my fingers. :rolleyes:

Zero-tolerance is BS. Some prevention is good, like if you find a known troublemaker with a bowie knife in his jacket. However, you don't expel an honor-roll student for a knife found in an illegal vehicle search, nor do you suspend third-graders for pointing their fingers at each other and saying "bang". Just use a little (un)common sense, for once, and the schools won't be so screwed up.

Asha'man

[Courtney]

I think zero tolerance is neccessary. No matter how much we wish it isn't true, violence is starting to be a major issue in schools. We can't just ignore it and hope it goes away. But teachers should not just enforce these rules, they should also teach children to solve problems without violence.