From today's Gazelle:
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>
OUR VIEW: Near-zero logic?
Sweeping rules on weapons in school leave
little room for common sense
As you'll glean from a glimpse at today's Tell it to The Gazette, readers aren't too keen on Mitchell High School's decision to suspend a student after a random drug search
turned up a pocket knife in her car - in a first-aid kit. Permit us to amplify some of our readers' views.
The fact that the senior, Sonya Golden, is an honor student who was named to the Mayor's 100 Teens list for her leadership skills, is beside the point. No one is asking school authorities - in the unfortunate words a school District 11 official used last week in a Gazette report - "to apply different rules to different kids."
That's a red herring, in fact. We join our readers in asking simply that school officials apply common sense.
And to the extent the rules themselves impose an unworkable, one-size-fits-all standard, policy makers should apply due haste in rewriting it.
In this case, Golden had done nothing of record that should have invoked scrutiny in the first place. The school district's security department uses dogs trained to sniff out drugs, alcohol and gun powder, and on a routine search of the high school parking lot the dogs apparently turned up the scent of alcohol around Golden's car. The scent was the result of an alcohol-related crash involving the car's previous owners, Golden believes.
Golden was pulled from class and asked if her car could be searched. She readily consented. It turns out she'd forgotten about the 21/2-inch pocket knife in a first-aid kit she and her mother had prepared and placed in the
glove compartment. Busted.
None of the administrators at the high school or at school district headquarters are challenging Golden's account or disputing her intent, which seems to be above reproach. Rather, officials are standing behind district policy, insisting they cannot bend the rules. She got a three-day suspension.
Those district-wide rules, which deem the pocket knife a "standard weapon," also state in part "... A student who violates this policy may be suspended and/or expelled,
depending on the nature of the violation." Given the insertion of "may," it's none too clear school authorities' hands were tied. It could be read to mean Golden didn't have to be disciplined at all, depending upon the
circumstances.
More generally, such sweeping "zero tolerance" policies, however well-meaning, almost invite abuse at some point. Too often, they're not thought through before they're enacted - as if intended at the time to serve
less as a legal standard than as a political statement in the wake of extraordinary school tragedies and general concerns about discipline. Then, the unintended consequences start to pop up.
Schools are to be lauded in general for trying to rein in the unruly students in their ranks. But overkill isn't the answer. We commend both Sonya Golden and her mother, Tamara Golden, for a measured and gracious response to all this. But we respectfully disagree with their shared sense that sometimes even the innocent must face the music to prevent tragedies on the order of
the one last spring at Littleton's Columbine High School.
School officials are kidding themselves if they think they're setting an example for any students who might actually have ill-intent. Plenty of students, and from the looks of it, the vast majority of our readers, see right
through that to the net effect: punishing the innocent.
[/quote]
------------------
"The right of no person to keep and bear arms in defense of his home, person and property,
or in aid of the civil power when thereto legally summoned, shall be called into question.."
Article 11, Section 13, CO state constitution.
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>
OUR VIEW: Near-zero logic?
Sweeping rules on weapons in school leave
little room for common sense
As you'll glean from a glimpse at today's Tell it to The Gazette, readers aren't too keen on Mitchell High School's decision to suspend a student after a random drug search
turned up a pocket knife in her car - in a first-aid kit. Permit us to amplify some of our readers' views.
The fact that the senior, Sonya Golden, is an honor student who was named to the Mayor's 100 Teens list for her leadership skills, is beside the point. No one is asking school authorities - in the unfortunate words a school District 11 official used last week in a Gazette report - "to apply different rules to different kids."
That's a red herring, in fact. We join our readers in asking simply that school officials apply common sense.
And to the extent the rules themselves impose an unworkable, one-size-fits-all standard, policy makers should apply due haste in rewriting it.
In this case, Golden had done nothing of record that should have invoked scrutiny in the first place. The school district's security department uses dogs trained to sniff out drugs, alcohol and gun powder, and on a routine search of the high school parking lot the dogs apparently turned up the scent of alcohol around Golden's car. The scent was the result of an alcohol-related crash involving the car's previous owners, Golden believes.
Golden was pulled from class and asked if her car could be searched. She readily consented. It turns out she'd forgotten about the 21/2-inch pocket knife in a first-aid kit she and her mother had prepared and placed in the
glove compartment. Busted.
None of the administrators at the high school or at school district headquarters are challenging Golden's account or disputing her intent, which seems to be above reproach. Rather, officials are standing behind district policy, insisting they cannot bend the rules. She got a three-day suspension.
Those district-wide rules, which deem the pocket knife a "standard weapon," also state in part "... A student who violates this policy may be suspended and/or expelled,
depending on the nature of the violation." Given the insertion of "may," it's none too clear school authorities' hands were tied. It could be read to mean Golden didn't have to be disciplined at all, depending upon the
circumstances.
More generally, such sweeping "zero tolerance" policies, however well-meaning, almost invite abuse at some point. Too often, they're not thought through before they're enacted - as if intended at the time to serve
less as a legal standard than as a political statement in the wake of extraordinary school tragedies and general concerns about discipline. Then, the unintended consequences start to pop up.
Schools are to be lauded in general for trying to rein in the unruly students in their ranks. But overkill isn't the answer. We commend both Sonya Golden and her mother, Tamara Golden, for a measured and gracious response to all this. But we respectfully disagree with their shared sense that sometimes even the innocent must face the music to prevent tragedies on the order of
the one last spring at Littleton's Columbine High School.
School officials are kidding themselves if they think they're setting an example for any students who might actually have ill-intent. Plenty of students, and from the looks of it, the vast majority of our readers, see right
through that to the net effect: punishing the innocent.
[/quote]
------------------
"The right of no person to keep and bear arms in defense of his home, person and property,
or in aid of the civil power when thereto legally summoned, shall be called into question.."
Article 11, Section 13, CO state constitution.
). But I'm continually blown away by what I hear kids are NOT being taught today. Ya know, silly stuff like Why we have this country, what it means to be an American, Respect for the individual, Respect for other's opinions, that kind of thing. I was just voicing a little frustration at what we are calling "our brightest" students.