BCT Editorial – 1/26/05

This page was last updated on January 28, 2005.

Senseless; Editorial; Beaver County Times; January 26, 2005.

Despite the length of the editorial, it never gets to the source of the problem.

Below is a detailed critique of the subject editorial.

“Chris McCarthy would seem to be the model student.

“The Upper Moreland junior in suburban Philadelphia was president of his class and had been elected to the National Honor Society. The Philadelphia Inquirer reports his extracurricular activities included the soccer team, the drama club and the annual blood drive.

“McCarthy is spending his junior year of high school attending Montgomery County Community College because of his school’s zero-tolerance policy.

“McCarthy’s great crime was taking a 4-inch pocketknife to school. The boy says he forgot it was there, an excuse that might or might not hold water. However, he never threatened anyone or attempted to use it.

“At worse, he should have received a short suspension.

“But on legal advice, the school board expelled him for the rest of the year.

“While some fault state law - the first paragraph of Pennsylvania’s Safe Schools Act states that school districts ‘shall expel, for a period of not less than one year’ any student in possession of a weapon - the real blame rests with administrators and school boards.”

[RWC] In true liberal form, blame the people charged with enforcing the law, not the legislators who wrote and passed the law. After all, the government can’t be wrong.

“The Inquirer reports that law also gives the superintendent authority ‘to recommend modifications’ on a case-by-case basis.

“We suspect that many administrators and school board directors who come down hard on students do so to avoid being charged with inconsistent enforcement of the rules.”

[RWC] “We suspect?” What BS! The editorial board knows full well the reason for so-called zero tolerance policies is that school officials were sued – sometimes by so-called “civil liberties” groups whose lawsuits were funded by tax dollars – when they used common sense in cases now covered by zero tolerance policies. This gave school officials only two options, no punishment at all or the same punishment for everyone regardless of the circumstances.

“Unless state lawmakers provide more legal coverage to encourage a case-by-case approach to weapons policies, expect senseless zero-tolerance injustices to continue.”

[RWC] Ah, more government to solve a problem generated by government, judges, and “civil liberties” groups without a lick of common sense.