Lack of common sence

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foxhound ss

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Hey guys,
I usually ignore stuff like this cause it tendes to start arguements and thats not my goal. However I was shocked over this MSN front page news. I understand Zero tollarance in schools ....but should it really out rule common sence?
Anyway please don't turn this into a huge political debate...please. I just wanted to share the stupidity of this school.

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/33289924/ns/today-today_people/?GT1=43001
 
ehh...sense


Anyway I agree schools have been pretty jumpy since Columbine. It's gotten to the point of stupidity.
 
Did you read the entire thing?

?The idea was to avoid discriminating against any student and to treat all students the same,? George Evans, president of the Christina school board, told NBC News.

When they made the rule, they put in affect (because of racial profiling in other districts), that there would be a ZERO tolerance on the matter.

That means, no matter the circumstances/common sense would have them do..they were locked into it.

The teacher very well could have lost her job if she had not reported it to the principle. The principle could have lost his job if he did not suspend the kid.

The article goes on to describe how the principle and several teachers testified on behalf of the kid

At the end of the suspension, he and his mother appeared before the district?s disciplinary action committee, where his principal and others spoke up for his good character. It didn?t matter. The committee?s hands were tied. The rules said he had brought a knife to school and would have to spend 45 days in the reform school.

Basically, everybody knew the rule was flawed, but they were forced to follow it.
 
cant fix dumb, .. some people jsut overreact over the silliest things.
 
Discretion in enforcement is always an important aspect that is hindered by lack of training and courage. I know from personal experience that not all individuals will step up and use their discretion for fear of losing their job or even their freedom. This is sad.

I had a very similar experience with my son's elementary school. A teacher had a rediculous accusation levied against her regarding child abuse. Without any investigation, just the allegation from another teacher (whom she had a personal problem with) this teacher was placed on administrative leave and my son lost a great teacher. An unqualified sub was brought in and my son's education suffered for almost 2 months. Since he was in a special class for pre-k children with disabilities I think you can see how damaging this can be since our goal was to get him ready for Kindergarten on-time. All the Principle had to do was take the complaint and investigate it. Instead she chose to pass-the-buck and cya herself.

It would have been nice for this teacher/Principle pair to stand up for the kid. Take the tool in questions away, to be returned to the parents. Now sit down with the kid and explain why he cannot bring it to school. There is a world of difference between a pocket camping tool with a tiny blade compared to a Tech-9 or a switchblade.
 
foxhound ss said:
I understand Zero tollarance in schools ....but should it really out rule common sence?
Click to expand...

A huge problem in today's society is that the majority of the population has a serious lack of common sense.

That is why zero tol. rules are the easiest. It saves the company/school district/government time and money from needing an oversight committee to watch over the enforcement of non-zero tol. rules. And also the fact that the "racism card" is so easy to pull.
 
I'm glad that when Columbine unfortunately happened, I was already halfway through high school, so I didn't have to face this kind of stuff that's happening now. I do agree that people are a bit jumpy after that, but kid's these days act like they got nothing to lose. It's scary as hell.
 
It also doesn't stop anything. Yes they have zero tolerance, but you need to catch them first. I know two people who used to take pocket knifes to school for projects they were working on in a robotics class. I wouldn't ever take in even a Swiss Army knife, but people still do and don't get caught so nothing really get's stopped by these policies.
 
DragonD said:
Did you read the entire thing?

?The idea was to avoid discriminating against any student and to treat all students the same,? George Evans, president of the Christina school board, told NBC News.

When they made the rule, they put in affect (because of racial profiling in other districts), that there would be a ZERO tolerance on the matter.

That means, no matter the circumstances/common sense would have them do..they were locked into it.

The teacher very well could have lost her job if she had not reported it to the principle. The principle could have lost his job if he did not suspend the kid.

The article goes on to describe how the principle and several teachers testified on behalf of the kid

At the end of the suspension, he and his mother appeared before the district?s disciplinary action committee, where his principal and others spoke up for his good character. It didn?t matter. The committee?s hands were tied. The rules said he had brought a knife to school and would have to spend 45 days in the reform school.

Basically, everybody knew the rule was flawed, but they were forced to follow it.
Click to expand...

Or they could just make better rules.

I don't want to sound like "look at me, I'm so cool and rebellious", but zero-tolerance policies serve to make everyone criminals, and are avoiding problems rather than solving them.

It's been proven time and time again that although rules are good to a point, when rule making is taken too far, rule breaking soon follows.

As a matter of fact, all of this applies to us too: admins here know not to actively search for problems, and simply to deal with the ones they come across. It's also why admins are picked based on common sense; they know what's right and what's wrong and don't need to worry about loopholes (to get through the rules or, like this case, to make them just plain stupid).
 
Cmon, It's a 1st grader. They should let him off the hook and tell him to not bring it to school. Kids in grade one don't know any better.
 
Ya know, it'd be nice to live in a black and white world where it's "zero-tolerance", always, never, what-have-you, but DAC is so complex that it simply isn't possible. Also, as for the school administration tying their own hands behind their backs, well, there's really no nice way to put it, but that was dumb. Should kids be disciplined for bringing weapons to school? Yes. Was this kid supposed to be suspended? Maybe, I probably wouldn't go as far as suspension, but a slap on the wrist, yeah.
 
!Woodstock! said:
A huge problem in today's society is that the majority of the population has a serious lack of common sense.

That is why zero tol. rules are the easiest. It saves the company/school district/government time and money from needing an oversight committee to watch over the enforcement of non-zero tol. rules. And also the fact that the "racism card" is so easy to pull.
Click to expand...

Well said. I +1 this.
 
Razor001 said:
Wow that is sad. People over react to the smallest things.
Click to expand...

Agreed, common sense isn't so common, 1st graders have gotten in trouble for chasing each other on the playground and heaven forbid, sneak a kiss, "that's sexual harrassment" sex offender at the age of 7?
 
heard on the raido that the child was allowed back to school...question is how muth long term bagagge did the school cause ...anly time wilkl tell
 
~_~...

A bit late reply here...

But...

He's six... and was eating lunch... with a damn knife spork... and started all of this.

Failed school system.
 
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