The New York Times features a front page story about a six year old kid who was given a 45 day suspension for bringing his boy scout “knife” (a combination spoon, fork and knife) to school.
The cases is emblematic of a national movement toward zero tolerance policies, usually regarding weapons and drugs (including alcohol). We elect or employ school board members and administrators because they are supposed to be able to exercise judgment on our behalf, and they abdicate that responsibility by enacting policies that forbid them from exercising judgment. The theory is that when they do exercise judgment, they sometimes get it wrong. Better to avoid the possibility of perpetrating an injustice by assuring that you will perpetrate multiple injustices. This is the same mindset that brought us mandatory sentencing guidelines, outrageously long minimum sentences, and three strikes rules, all of which have caused more problems than they’ve cured.
This particular kid is being punished for lacking the judgment (at six years old) that the school administrators and board members implicitly admit that they themselves lack in the full flower of their adulthood.
I sat in on three “zero tolerance” suspension/expulsion hearings while I was on the school board. In only one was such a drastic penalty even arguably appropriate. Kids lack judgment; they do stupid things. The hearings I attended all involved “weapons”; but the same sort of thing happens with drugs or alcohol, often with less justification. We groped around trying to find a way around our own policy; the obvious answer was to abandon the policy. It’s good to see that these absurd policies are now being questioned.
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