Our authorities may not be able to track down Osama bin laden, but never fear, they’re keeping us safe from budding little terrorists such as first grader Zachary Christie. Caught red-handed, the Newark, Delaware, six-year-old was suspended from his school and may face 45 days in reform school for violating the Christina School District’s “zero tolerance” policy on weapons. His offense?

The “weapon” in question is a “hobo tool” the first grader had received after recently joining the Cub Scouts; it contains a fork, spoon, and knife. Zachary was so excited about his new acquisition — as any normal boy would be — that he brought it to school to use during lunch period. School officials then suspended him, saying they have no choice because the district’s code of conduct prohibits the possession of knives “regardless of the possessor’s intent.”

Unfortunately, little Zachary’s story is a common one today, with well-meaning students being subjected to disproportionate punishment across the nation in the name of zero tolerance. Writing about Zachary’s case in the New York Times, Ian Urbina provides one of these other examples, that of a third-grade girl who “was expelled for a year because her grandmother had sent a birthday cake to school, along with a knife to cut it. The teacher called the principal — but not before using the knife to cut and serve the cake.”

I wonder what punishment was visited on the teacher, who actually used this dangerous weapon — hence becoming the “trigger man” — before fingering the little lass who simply provided it.

Yet, if this doesn’t push your outrage button, try the following on for size: a 12-year-old named Bruce Cruz was once suspended from school for fashioning a gun out of paper. Then there was a nine-year-old named Mark Polansky who was suspended for simply having a paper cutout of a pistol. And Polansky must have been a good kid, too. He didn’t even try to jump bail.

If that’s not enough for you, 13-year-old Paul Mosteller was suspended for simply drawing a gun on a piece of paper. It’s a good thing it wasn’t a knife — those paper cuts can be murder.

Yet it’s not only imaginary weapons that can bring punishment, but also imaginary sex. For instance, there was the case of six-year-old Johnathan Prevette, who was suspended for “sexual harassment” for giving a classmate a little peck on the cheek. Unluckily for him, I suppose, the classmate was a girl. Otherwise he could have claimed minority status and complained of intolerance.

So what motivates such insanity? There are many factors, and Urbina discusses one of them in his piece:   

Education experts say that zero-tolerance policies initially allowed authorities more leeway in punishing students, but were applied in a discriminatory fashion. Many studies indicate that African-Americans were several times more likely to be suspended or expelled than other students for the same offenses.

“The result of those studies is that more school districts have removed discretion in applying the disciplinary policies to avoid criticism of being biased,” said Ronnie Casella, an associate professor of education at Central Connecticut State University.

So, just as employers alter their policies (instituting racial quotas) in deference to the politically correct thought police, so do schools. It’s the same mentality that is leading to actual racial quotas in the meting out of punishment in school, something I wrote about here.

So, based on the claim that some teachers are practicing discrimination (I don’t believe what the studies imply, by the way), school districts are in essence saying that there will be zero tolerance for reality. And reality is that punishment is all about discrimination — in that you single out certain people from among many based on the belief that they’ve violated a rule — and just punishment requires that you discriminate rightly. Thus, how does it make sense to institute a policy that renders this impossible?

And this is what has happened. There was the allegation that certain students were punished differently for the same actions (I suspect that the difference was attributable to intent), but now it’s a fact that certain students are punished the same for very different actions — and despite having very different intent. We’re lumping six-year-olds with camping tools in with troubled teens with military knives.

I would also ask: What is a weapon? Does a hobo tool qualify? Remember, hammers, screwdrivers, bats, golf clubs, and sharpened pencils can be — and have been — used as weapons. But they also have legitimate uses as tools. Can the same, however, not also be said of knives? We all use them that way — upwards of 99.9 percent of the time. (Despite this, there are those who would extend knife prohibitions beyond the schoolhouse doors. For example, some in Britain have called for a ban on sharp kitchen knives.)

Yet the mindless enforcement of mind-boggling rules already extends beyond the schoolhouse doors. Just consider the case of 66-year-old George Norris, who was imprisoned for two years for legally importing orchids simply because some companies he obtained them from failed to fill out paperwork correctly. Consider the hapless Krister Evertson, an inventor working on clean-energy fuel cells, who also was sent away for almost two years. What was his crime?

He forgot to place a federally mandated sticker on a UPS package containing some of his supplies.

Then there’s Indianan Sally Harpold, a grandmother who was handcuffed and arrested for buying cold medicine. Yes, you read that right. Harpold bought Zyrtec-D and Mucinex-D for two different family members within a seven-day period, not realizing that she was exceeding a legal limit Indiana had placed on the purchase of such medication in an effort to combat methamphetamine producers. And although she is not in that business, this didn’t matter to Prosecutor Nina Alexander. Echoing the Christina School District’s rules, the prosecutor said that, under the drug law, intent doesn’t matter.

Alexander also used the old cliché “Ignorance of the law is no excuse.” Yet what excuse does the law have for being ignorant of morality? Ignorance of the law is unavoidable when laws become so legion and labyrinthine that only a cross between Perry Mason and Rain Man could know them all. Remember, the tax code is so expansive now that even I.R.S. agents don’t fully understand it. And even simpler codes aren’t so simple anymore. The Christina School District’s code of conduct, which I mentioned earlier, is 80 pages long.

I would also point out that there’s the letter of the law, and then there’s the spirit of the law. And if teachers, judges, and the Nina Alexanders of the world would become sanctimonious about adherence to the former, I’d ask them a couple of questions. Do you always drive no more than 30 mph in a 30 zone and come to full stops at stop signs? Do you follow all the thousands of laws that have metastasized in our nation like cancer cells?

Of course, we do have to be governed by the rule of law, but law has to be governed by the rule of morality. And there’s nothing just about micromanaging lives and turning man into marionette.

Just as a picture is worth a thousand words, common sense is worth a thousand laws. Unfortunately, today we have too many laws and too little common sense.

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Mike Bullard said:

	... Excellent article!! It should be passed by congress. But that would make it a another rule. Like the paperwork reduction notice. Could the American public ever quit asking government to micromanage? Anyway. Thank you. How can this exact article become better known?
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October 13, 2009
Votes: +5

Melvin said:

Proffessional Retired Why are people so shocked over this? This isn't nothing new from administrators of government run schools and hysterical mothers of America. American mothers have turned the government run schools into giant playpens that all have outlawed sharp objects and common sense. I'm not surprised that government run schools and some hysterical parent don't mandate that students walk the hallways with bike helmets, elbow and knee pads, "Jussssst to maaaakeee the childddrreeen extra, extra, double extra safe." My God America, get a grip on yourself will you, your afraid of everything now.

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October 13, 2009
Votes: +4

Slower Traffic Keep Right said:

	Love of Authority is the Root of All Evil Good for the boy's family for deciding to home school. I'd take him out permanently and home school him. Let the school deal with the loss of funding.
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October 13, 2009
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Flu-Bird said:

	Zero tolerence is stupid All this zero tolerence poppycock is getting out of hand i mean no wonder our schools are failing with all this PC zero intellegence stuff
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October 13, 2009
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Florida Warren said:

	The law is "a idiot"! “If the law supposes that,” said Mr. Bumble,… “the law is a ass—a idiot. If that’s the eye of the law, the law is a bachelor; and the worst I wish the law is that his eye may be opened by experience—by experience.” ATTRIBUTION:CHARLES DICKENS, Oliver Twist, chapter 51, p. 489 (1970). First published serially 1837–1839.
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October 13, 2009
Votes: +1

BrianD said:

... Sometimes I read a story that so amazes me that I have to shout, “What is this country coming to”. And then I sadly realize that with the great intellectual, like we have running the Christina School District (CSD), we get what we deserve. The “zero tolerance for weapons policy” is nothing more than the CSD giving way to hysteria and lacks any form of common sense. But intellectuals like we have in the CSD are so far above common sense (sarcasm), that slightly educated people like me (AS, BA) just will not get it anyway. Right? Zachary looks and sounds like a dangerous person (sarcasm). And you may want to get the police involve (more sarcasm).

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October 13, 2009
Votes: +3

Bonnie said:

... Public schools should ban ANYTHING that could be used as a weapon... guns, knives, scissors, books (every get hit with a book?), pencils, pens, paper clips, paper (danger of paper cuts), shoes (someone might throw a shoe at the teacher), desks and chairs (can also be thrown), any eating utensil, lunch boxes, back packs, plastic bags, belts. Perhaps our children need to sit naked and handcuffed on the floor while watching Sesame Street. They can learn proper diet from Cookie Monster (who has forsaken cookies), proper behavior from Oscar the Grouch (who is now in anger management), and learn about tolerance from Kami (who has AIDS). Maybe they can even hear some more inspirational words from Obama. In such a situation, children could also be easily medicated for behavior modification or whatever "disease" the administrators feel they may have. Diet could also be strictly controlled to eliminate obesity and avoid any foods which someone else may dislike or find offensive. No meats so as not to offend the vegetarians. I would suggest rice, asparagus, bananas

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October 13, 2009
Votes: +1

Brother John said:

Zero Tolerance = Zero Thought Screwl Districts with Zero Tolerance policies try to accomplish two things at once: protect teachers, and keep discretionary decision making to the barest possible minimum. I had a Swiss Army knife on my person every day in high school (I used to fix instruments during after school rehearsal) and in fact years before that as well. And it wasn't all that long ago. The sorry fact is, the tighter your grip, and the longer you try to treat students (I avoid the use of "kids" or especially "chirren") as babies, the longer it's going to take them to grow up and take responsibility for their own actions; meanwhile, there's no real need to teach students how to think in complex situations anyway, because that's not what screwl is for -- is it?

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October 14, 2009
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Selena said:

... Why are schools being so strict on kids who don't even know better?? Really? Suspending a kid for giving a little peck on the cheek to a girl who doesn't even know what sex is, let alone sexual harrassment?! The district needs a little more common sense to reduce the punishment for children who don't know anything when it comes to classifying what is a weapon and what isn't, because I'm pretty sure you can't kill anybody with a spoon...

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October 14, 2009 | url
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Dale said:

	... It’s too bad that these people don’t talk about the letter of the law when it comes to our Constitution. Oh, wait somehow that’s different.
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October 14, 2009
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ugg boots uk sale said:

	... The final reason why you should buy genuine, Aussie Uggs is that they will last longer. The merino sheepskin used is of a very high quality that will last you a long time and because the material allows your feet to breathe, they won't get sweaty causing the fabric to decay.
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October 15, 2009 | url
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Jay Pastor said:

Why so Serious? A six year gets suspended for bringing in his multi-tool to class. The school called it a pocket knife, this incident happened to me in 7th grade. My friend Jon, an eagle scout for 3 years, showed me how cool the multi-tool was and all the little gadgets. A small instrument which consists of a spoon, fork, knife; and screw drivers. The six year had one that was only a fork, spoon, and a knife. I was to hold onto it because he had no pockets and was going to gym. A teacher saw me put it in my pocket and reported that I had a pocket knife. I was suspended for a week, and it went on my permanent record. My father and I yelled at the school board because nowhere in hell a pocket knife has a lot of gadgets, they lowered the charge to possession of a multi-tool. Schools over react, they act like children themselves and tattle tale until the other gets detention. It ridiculous that a six year old has to deal with something like this and has to be treated like a criminal. “A grown up is a child with layers on.” –Woody Harrelson

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November 05, 2009
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