Pubdate: Sat, 28 Feb 2004 Source: Times-Picayune, The (LA) Copyright: 2004 The Times-Picayune Contact: http://www.nola.com/t-p/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/848 Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topics/zero+tolerance A SIGHTING OF COMMON SENCE Pretty soon, school-age children across America are going to have to consult their history texts to learn about the days when it was considered necessary for school teachers, principals, superintendents and school boards to exercise good judgment. It worked out pretty well, good judgment. Parents and students could expect school administrators to at least acknowledge the importance of common sense when addressing disciplinary questions even if there was the risk that not everybody would be in total agreement at the end of the day. In the days before zero tolerance, there's no way, for instance, that school officials would have described a 9-year-old who brought an inch-long G.I. Joe gun to school as being in "Possession of a weapon Firearm replica" and threatened him with expulsion. That's what Birmingham City School officials did to third-grader Austin Crittenden last week. They suspended him, and a spokeswoman for the school system told The Birmingham News that the boy could be expelled or sent to alternative school because "The code of student conduct specified that the violation of possession of weapons includes firearm replicas." Give Birmingham school officials credit for realizing how insane that explanation sounded. The boy's grandmother said Austin was allowed to return to Sun Valley Elementary School Thursday, three days after he had been sent home for having the "weapon." She said the system voided the suspension, which means it won't be on his record, and that he'll be allowed to make up the work he missed. That's a bit of old school 'fessing up that's refreshing to hear. By reversing their course relatively quickly, Birmingham school officials bucked a national trend. It tends to take zero tolerance proponents a little while longer to acknowledge that there's nothing to be gained in punishing children who are not trying to break a rule. Punishing children for taking a one-inch gun or for carrying an ibuprofen to school doesn't teach children that they need to steer clear of guns and drugs; it teaches them that the adults live in Bizarro world, where one's intentions are insignificant and consistency is more important than fairness. Zero tolerance policies have replaced good judgment in most public school districts across the country, but the fact that good judgment finally prevailed in Birmingham means that the concept is not extinct, although it certainly is endangered. - --- MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin