BCT Editorial – 5/11/06

This page was last updated on May 11, 2006.

Inflexible; Editorial; Beaver County Times; May 11, 2006.

Below is a detailed critique of the subject editorial.

“The New Brighton Area School District has brought unwanted attention upon itself because of its strict adherence to a zero-tolerance policy regarding an incident involving senior Cory Johnson, who was hit with a 10-day suspension for making a comment about the Columbine High School shooting after being called ‘Osama bin Laden’ for two days.

“At an April 25 school assembly, students were invited onstage with motivational speaker and former Harlem Globetrotter Melvin Adams, who joked around with them. Adams referred to Johnson as ‘Osama bin Laden’ because Johnson, who is part Lebanese and black, had a scraggly beard and long hair.

“Johnson said he was called ‘Osama’ or ‘bin Laden’ by students and teachers repeatedly over the next two days. When a friend used the name, a teacher heard Johnson respond, ‘If I were Osama bin Laden, then I would’ve pulled a Columbine by now.’

“Clearly, there is plenty of blame to go around here. Adams should not have made the comparison, students and teachers should not have picked up on it, as Johnson says they did, and Johnson should not have used the Columbine analogy.

“The problem with zero-tolerance policies is that they don’t take into account extenuating circumstances. The mess the New Brighton Area is embroiled in could have been avoided if someone in authority had been allowed to use discretion instead of blindly adhering to the zero-tolerance policy.”

[RWC] This is at least the third zero-tolerance editorial since October 2004. The previous pieces were entitled “Beyond belief” and “Senseless.” Since the Times still hasn’t figured out the real problem, my comments haven’t changed from my previous critiques.