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.
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MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin