Zero Tolerance for Zero Tolerance

I've always had a problem with 'zero tolerance' as a school policy. Even murder charges may have a different level - a nuance, if you will - applied, depending on circumstance, evidence, and intent.

Throwing a student out of school for pointing his 'gun-finger' at someone is silly and immature, not to mention useless. Gun-control and gun-bans work for law- and rule-abiding people. Those who are otherwise don't give a rip about the laws or the rules.

SOME semblance of sanity may be returning around the country, I hope.

It soon became clear that "weapon" could be defined as anything from a pencil to a machete. The result was a rash of horror stories about students suspended or expelled for bringing plastic knives to school in their lunches, keeping nail-clippers in their lockers, even pointing finger-"guns" at other students.

I've even heard of students being punished for pictures of weapons. Drawn by LITTLE KIDS. Exactly who's the grown-up in this situation? Don't most "educators" and "education administrators" have advanced degrees, and shouldn't they have learned that little boys - particularly in military families and/or in the great expanse of agricultural areas of Flyover Country - LIKE to draw guns, bows and arrows, knives, and such? My favorite toy was a rifle of my brother's - I wanted to be The Rifleman or Paladin, and I was a girl!

In Texas, a state Senate committee is scheduled to consider Tuesday a bill that would allow school officials to take into account "mitigating factors" before punishing students for violating zero-tolerance policies. A House committee approved the companion bill earlier in a 6-0 vote.

The Texas legislation comes partly in response to a 2008 article in the Texas Tech Law Review, "Zeroing Out Zero Tolerance: Eliminating Zero Tolerance Policies in Texas Schools," which concluded that such laws have failed to reduce school violence while moving more students into the juvenile-justice system.

"I believe that we should strive to keep our schools as safe as possible," said state Sen. Mario Gallegos, the Democrat who sponsored the bill. "However, I also know that in the real world, nothing is black and white. In a world filled with gray areas, we must give our school districts the discretion to choose the appropriate punishment for those students who break the rules due to mitigating circumstances."