Tuesday, February 25, 2014

DISENGAGE BRAIN ENGAGE 0 TOLERANCE

Just one more story on the stupidity of 0 tolerance running rampant through our school system.   In this case the boy was driving his father's care (his father is a fisherman) during a lock down and inspection they the fishing knife in the car.  Boy is a senior and he was immediately suspended for 10 days and sent for 90 days to an alternative school (what the hell ever that is).

No explanation allowed , suspended and punished without an explanation.  His family was unsuccessful coming to his defense as no excuses would satisfy the warden that his story was worthy of a look.. Nop go your done, sent to purgatory for what?

All too often this 0 tolerance system comes to the surface and it usually involves some minor violation that could be solved any number of saner ways.  But no, the zero tolerance rules must be obeyed without engaging a brain.

My first encounter with   Zero tolerance was in the late sixties in Idaho, where JR Simplot started a zero defect program in his potato plants.  So there after it started showing up in the school systems as the thing to do.  It requires an administrator to simply look at a little chart and pronounce the sentence, you did this ,x number of days on the beach or perhaps and expulsion.

Even in the good ole days in catholic school the black crows would ask for your story before they punished you.  Once in awhile they believed you and you went unpunished.. If guilty you may have been whacked with a ruler.  Yeah capital punishment , somehow seemed more just than actions today.
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In the 90's at a meeting of school board candidates "ZERO TOLERANCE" was a question asked of the candidates   all but one was for it.   Of course the one lone dude didn't have a chance he was soundly defeated.  The people had no problem with dogs searching backpacks and lockers with no probable cause.  Over time it sure looks to be that  when one becomes a school administrator one parks their brain in a locked safe.

Zero tolerance might make it easier for punishment but it sure doesn't give any credit for telling the truth.  Even the military in the old days gave some lee way during the mast phase of on investigation
to hear the stories of those involved in the incident.  There are positions in this world (as Captain of a ship) where if it happened in your command you are responsible and in lots of cases you loose your command.

It would seem as the world progresses we would always move forward, but the reverse seems to be true.    

1 comment:

  1. I just read a case of a woman jogging in Austin, Texas. She was jogging with music and ear plugs in. She did not hear the police ask her for ID when they noticed her jaywalking .
    The police handcuffed her while she screamed she did not do anything.
    They took her to the station and when a supervisor at the police station was asked about the incident, he said she was lucky she was not raped by the police like they do on duty in other precincts.
    OUTRAGEOUS.
    I don't like where this is headed.

    ReplyDelete

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