http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB99014241788075664.htm # # May 18, 2001 # # 'Zero Tolerance' Makes Zero Sense # # By James Taranto, editor of OpinionJournal.com. # # Quick: Name an issue that unites the liberal American Civil # Liberties Union and the conservative Rutherford Institute. The # answer is "zero tolerance," the lunatic policy under which schools # across America are suspending, expelling and even jailing kids # for the most trivial of offenses, all in the name of preventing # another Columbine. # # On May 4, the ACLU won a temporary restraining order on behalf # of Kara Williams, a 16-year-old freshman at Rio Rancho High # School, near Albuquerque, N.M. Ms. Williams had the misfortune # of being out of class at a time when two other girls were # suspected of smoking marijuana in the girls' room. She was # summoned to the principal's office, where a security guard # searched her bag. She had no pot, but the guard did find a key # chain, attached to which was a tiny penknife, complete with # tweezers, toothpick and a one-inch blade. # # Under the school's zero-tolerance weapons policy, Ms. Williams # was suspended for the remainder of the school year -- some 45 # days. Five weeks later, federal judge Bruce Black ordered the # school to readmit Kara pending the outcome of the case; last # week the school board effectively reduced her sentence to time # served. # # But the allegation of "carrying a deadly weapon" will remain # on her record, unless Judge Black rules otherwise. Deadly? Ms. # Williams's stepfather told KOAT-TV that he brought a similar # penknife to the federal courthouse, where a security officer # "looked at it and didn't think nothing of it. Went through the # metal detector, gave it back to me and said, 'Go on.' " # # The Rutherford Institute, meanwhile, has filed a federal lawsuit # on behalf of nine-year-old Raleigh "Trey" Walker III, suspended # for drawing weapons. That's drawing -- as in illustrating, # sketching, depicting. In March, Trey, a third-grader at Lenwil # Elementary School in West Monroe, La., drew a picture of a soldier # holding a knife -- a tribute, his father said, to a relative # in the Army. Principal Edward Davis put Trey on "in-school # suspension" for a day, saying he found the picture upsetting. # (You be the judge; it's reproduced nearby.) "We can't tolerate # anything that has to do with guns or knives," Mr. Davis told # the Monroe News-Star. # # Willie Isby, director of child welfare and attendance for the # Ouachita Parish school system, added that "the punishment is # not that bad in this case, in light of the fact that we have # been having all these killings in schools." Mr. Isby also vowed # to suppress "copycat drawings." Meanwhile Trey's father, Raleigh # Walker II, told the News-Star, "I had to explain to him that # owning guns and being in the Army is not bad." # # Since March, when I began following zero-tolerance for the "Best # of the Web Today" feature of OpinionJournal.com, this page's # Web site, I've read dozens of news stories about outrageously # stupid acts of school discipline. (I'm grateful to OpinionJou # rnal's readers for tipping me off to many of them.) A complete # archive is available on the site, but here's a sampling: # # Last week an 11-year-old fifth-grader in Oldsmar, Fla., was hauled # out of class in handcuffs for drawing pictures of weapons. "The # children were in no danger at all," Oldsmar Elementary Principal # David Schmitt acknowledged in an interview with the St. Petersburg # Times. "It involved no real weapons." But school-district # spokesman Ron Stone told the Times that handcuffing is "normal # procedure in a situation like this." # # A 16-year-old girl was suspended for 10 days from Pau-Wa-Lu Middle # School in Gardnerville, Nev., for compiling a list of classmates # who "frustrated" her. "We don't want a school shooting in our # county, and we would rather err on the side of student safety," # principal Robbin Pedrett told the Associated Press -- even though # the girl had no access to weapons. # # In Stuart, Fla., a nine-year-old second-grader was arrested and # charged with aggravated assault -- a felony -- after he allegedly # pointed a toy gun at a classmate at J.D. Parker Elementary School. # Earlier, two eight-year-olds at the Augusta Street School in # Irvington, N.J., were charged with "making terrorist threats" # after playing cops and robbers with "paper guns." (Prosecutors # later dropped the charges.) And in Jonesboro, Ark., eight-year-old # Christopher Kissinger was suspended from South Elementary School # for three days for pointing a boneless, breaded chicken finger # at a teacher and saying, "Pow, pow, pow." # # What accounts for this madness? Why are schools so wildly # overreacting to, or even criminalizing, ordinary juvenile # behavior? The specter of Columbine and other heavily publicized # school shootings obviously haunts school officials everywhere. # But zero tolerance long predates that massacre. The Education # Department reported that in the 1996-97 school year -- two years # before Columbine -- 94% of schools nationwide already had # zero-tolerance policies for firearms. # # The reactions we've seen lately -- reminiscent of the Secret # Service investigating every wisecrack or offhand remark about # assassinating the president -- are vastly disproportionate to # the actual risk. The Secret Service has reason to be hypervig # ilant. Of the 42 men who have served as president, four were # assassinated and another six survived at least one assassination # attempt. If you're president, then, the odds of your being an # assassination target are 23.8%, or nearly one in four. The # likelihood of being killed in school is more like one in two # million, or 0.00005%. # # The Associated Press reported yesterday that the Columbine Review # Commission, set up by Gov. Bill Owens in the wake of the 1999 # massacre, is recommending that every Colorado high school set # up a team to evaluate verbal and written threats. Perhaps these # teams will approach the task with sensitivity and common sense. # But if the stories we've seen from around the country are any # indication, America's schoolchildren have more to fear from mass # hysteria in the name of zero tolerance than from any lack of # vigilance on the part of school officials.
