October 30, 2007

I Have Zero Tolerance for Zero Tolerance Policies

By Charles J. Sykes
I have a confession to make. When I was a child, I was a chronic, repeat doodler. During dull moments at school, I admit,  I not only drew soldiers shooting one another, but also tanks, bombers, fighters, and even the occasional space ship with planet destroying powers. These days, of course, any of them would have been enough to get me kicked out of school. In our era of zero-tolerance, I would surely have spent most of elementary and middle school shuttling between suspensions and expulsions, with an occasional time out for social studies. Just ask the 7-year-old in New Jersey who was suspended for drawing a smiling stick figure shooting another smiling stick figure with a gun. He reportedly also drew pictures of a skateboarder, a ghost, King Tut, a tree,  and a Cyclops. These are still apparently not yet illegal acts of art.Meanwhile, in South Carolina, high school student Amber Dauge faced expulsion for accidentally taking a butter knife to school. She says that she ran...(Read Full Article)