EDITORIAL ON ZERO-TOLERANCE POLICIES.
By: Bryan Thompson

There is a scourge on our school and on the school system nationwide, but it is from an unlikely suspect; the school policies itself. The policy is zero-tolerance and it is as ineffective as it is dangerous to the entire system of reason and judiciousness on a case-to-case basis that the school system has relied on for so long. I believe that we can all agree that we want our school to be drug and weapon free but the Zero-Tolerance policy goes too far and often prescribes punishments much harsher than any reasonable school official would prescribe if it were up to them. For example, LSHS’s policy for possession of “harmful or illegal drug” is an automatic 10-day suspension. Now, for many drugs, certainly all illegal ones, the punishment should be harsh but a 10 day suspension does nothing to curb use of these illegal drugs and only serves to foster the isolation that the student feels, often the feeling that drove him or her to use the drug. Scarier still is how much is up to the schools discretion as to what a “harmful or illegal drug” is. For example, schools across the country have suspended or even expelled students for possessing such “harmful” drugs as Tylenol, benadryl and many other over the counter and prescription drugs. Why are we punishing students for wanting to attend school so much?
Again, I think that most of us are reasonable people and believe that a student that posses a weapon on school grounds should be punished and helped to prevent incidents like that in the future, however according to school policy, students are often to be suspended for weeks or even expelled for possessing what could be considered a weapon. What could be considered a weapon by school officials? Here’s a list of some “weapons” that different schools across the country have suspended students for
- An honor student was sentenced to a 45 day suspension because a pocket-knife his dad had used to fix the rearview mirror was found on his passenger seat. His scholarship is in danger.
-A 16 year old student who was helping his grandmother move forgot to take a 10 inch bread knife out of his car. His “just punishment”? He was expelled for a year.
- Three teenagers brought a small laser pointer to school. Most of us would think that they would just have the laser pointer taken away and get detention. The over-zealous school suspended each of them for a year. These three teenagers were forced to attend an “alternative school” in which many of the students there brought real weapons to school on a regular basis.
- Another teenager was arrested and charged with “throwing a deadly missile”, a second degree felony. The “deadly missile”? An egg. Saturday detention, probably. 10-15 years in the slammer? No.
This is school policy run amok when administrators would rather draft a quick policy in a mistaken attempt to prevent school violence. Instead, these Zero-Tolerance policies do nothing to help students learn or the school function. We need to start putting Reason and Logic back into our schools.