ZeroIntelligence.net

I don’t think I’ve ever read a clearer example of “Zero tolerance equals zero intelligence” than a recent article in the Gulf Breeze News.

A female student was expelled for bringing prescription drugs to school and giving them to another student. (The mother has claimed she finally succumbed to sustained peer pressure from the other girl.) If that was that, I’d have to agree punishment is deserved. Her mother didn’t want to see her daughter sent to the alternative school, so chose to tackle the disciplinary effort herself and appeal to the school board to allow her efforts to replace the standard punishment.

The mother required her daughter to research the dangers around the abuse of prescription drugs and put together a program that could be used to teach other children on the subject. Having completed this work, managed voluntarily by the mother, she requested her daughter be readmitted to her regular school. She further offered to put her daughter through any kind of drug program or other summer school program if this could happen.

School board? No dice.

Superintendent of Schools John Rogers admitted it was great what the mother had done, but fell back on the precedent of previous punishments meted out for similar offenses. He said to the mother, “How would we explain to them, if we made an exception here, why they have to go there and your daughter does not?”

I have an idea. Rogers could say something like, “Her mother took an active interest in her subsequent discipline and worked with her through a community service effort designed to directly counter the problem at no expense to taxpayers. Perhaps you could do the same and return to your regular school.”

School Board Chair Hugh Winkles said, “When it comes to weapons and drugs, we cannot do anything less than zero tolerance. We have drawn this line in the sand, and we cannot change it now.”

My interpretation: “We had a thought and we are disinclined to entertain a different one. We must instead stick to this one and only way of handling things.” I sure wish Winkles would go on record in opposition to the ever-changing ways schools seem to use in teaching arithmetic. None of the techniques used when I was a child apply anymore and it seems each of my three children has been taught differently.

Two other school board members asked to see the program, anticipating incorporating some or all it into next year’s curriculum. How many other students sent off to an alternative high school have supplied such a tool? And how many more parents will bother to attempt alternative and highly educational discipline of their own children after understanding how little good it will do them directly?