BCT Editorial – 6/22/07

This page was last updated on July 2, 2007.

Zero tolerance; Editorial; Beaver County Times; June 22, 2007.

Below is a detailed critique of the subject editorial.

“The absurdity and injustice of school zero-tolerance policies are finally starting to dawn on some politicians.

“The Associated Press reports lawmakers in several states say the strict policies in schools have resulted in many punishments that lack common sense, and are seeking to loosen the restrictions.

“Zero-tolerance policies are unfair because they don’t take into account the circumstances under which the alleged offences took place, like the 10-year-old girl who was expelled from a Colorado academy after giving a teacher a small knife her mother placed in her lunchbox or the kindergartner in Rhode Island who was suspended for bringing a plastic knife to school so he could cut cookies.

“The punishment should fit the crime. As the Rhode Island lawmaker who is pushing his state’s efforts to restore some semblance of common sense and sanity to the matter told The AP, ‘A machete is not the same as a butter knife. A water gun is not the same as a gun loaded with bullets.’

“We can only hope that the anti-zero tolerance trend continues because too many children already have been punished too harshly for crimes they didn’t commit.”

[RWC] This is at least the fourth editorial on this topic since October 2004, and none really explored the underlying cause of “zero tolerance” policies. Instead, the Times was content to assert, “the real blame rests with administrators and school boards” (“Senseless,” 1/26/05). The other editorials were “Beyond belief” and “Inflexible.”

I agree the zero tolerance issue needs to be resolved, but that won’t happen if we ignore what led to the problem in the first place.

Since the Times still hasn’t figured out the real problem, my comments haven’t changed from my previous critiques.

Finally, is the Times outsourcing editorials? In the U.S., we tend to spell offense with an “s”, not a “c.”