An Example Where Zero Tolerance SHOULD Be in Place

When I was going to school for my teaching certificate, I took a class and part of that class I had to research zero tolerance and write a paper and basically choose a side.  I had a very hard time with that paper because it had to relate to elementary school and maybe this is naive of me, but I really don’t think kids in elementary school fully understand ALL of their actions enough to have a zero tolerance policy in place.  I mean, when it comes to young children in elementary school, I think that the adults in the school are responsible for teaching them right and wrong and learning from their actions when they are in school and having a zero tolerance policy takes away that learning experience.  Once they are in middle school and high school, I feel it’s a different story and a zero tolerance policy should be in place.  Especially in this situation.

Last week there was a fight at a high school campus in Canton, Michigan.  Only I wouldn’t really call it a fight as much as I would call it a freaking beating.  According to this article, a boy was “sucker punched” from behind.  When he went down, the other boy proceeded to beat him to the point of shattering his pelvis.  WTF???

In talking with a friend who’s children go to this particular high school, the boys both got a 14 day suspension.  Again, WTF?  14 days?  That’s it?  14 days for BEATING someone.  That is just ludicrous to me.  And this is the PERFECT example of where a zero tolerance policy should be enforced.  The boy that beat the other one and shattered his pelvis should be expelled.

Yes boys will fight.  I know this.  But this was not a “meet me at the flag pole after school” kind of fight.  This was a beating and the fact that the one boy ended up with a shattered pelvis, how much fighting could he have done?  Not a whole hell of a lot, if any.

Ugh this makes me sick.  What is wrong with people????