revance said:
The kid drew 2 stick figures depicting the boy shooting another student. ... I highly doubt this is innocent playing, this is probably a child expressing his dislike of another student in a malicious hateful way. ... I would think people who always advocate responsible use of firearms would see the harm in this.
Good Golly Miss Molly!
Where I see the harm, is in prohibiting these kinds of actions. People, adults as well as kids, have a distinct tendency to release their aggressions, anger, and frustrations by day-dreaming, writing, play-acting and/or drawing. If it wasn't allowed, then how do you expect a person to release the tensions? Actually go berserk? Because that's exactly what happens when milder expressions of pent-up emotions aren't allowed to be released.
Drawing stick figures, one shooting the other, even putting names to them, is not even close to being the same, as actually acting on the violence.
I used to believe that "zero tolerance" was about the adults not having to make decisions. Oh, that's a part of it. More and more, I believe it is behavior modification. It has all the earmarks of Effective Communications, a Psych 202 course from the mid '70's.
It probably isn't that simple, yet on the surface, it sure seems that way.