Ok, I am a left wing liberal fruitcake myself. I don’t like guns, don’t let my son have toy guns, etc. But even I think this is ridiculous.
Three kindergarteners were playing cops and robbers, using their fingers as guns, and were suspended for “threats” and something to do with weapons. Now, I would not have a problem with a teacher asking them not to play a game where they shoot each other, if that kind of thing was against school policy, but SUSPENSION!??!!
Opal, I have to disagree with your posting this in Great Debates as it is much better suited for the Pit. I can’t imagine any Doper is going to defend an idiotic Zero Tolerance policy like this one.
At least the school district officials say that they plan to review the policy.
On his 1976 album Let’s Get Small, Steve Martin quipped that he had the solution to overpopulation: Death Penalty for parking violations.
Dear Wilson School District:
Steve Martin was making a joke! He was exaggerating! Please do not add his idea to your “Zero Tolerance” policy.
Blame the lawyers. If one of those kids came to school later in the year with a real gun, there would be Hell to pay. The administrators would be crucified for witnessing a “simulated” shoot out and not doing anything about it. Subsequently, school administrators have a hair trigger when it comes to disciplining potentially anti-social behavior. Yes, it is moronic, but that’s the litigious society in which we live.
Realistically, here’s how I would rank the blame for this foolishness: Ambulance chasing lawyers: 33%, school administrators: 33%, anybody connected with a tragedy who merely see it as winning the lottery 33%, kids: 0% (does not equal 100% due to rounding).
A similar situation existed with respect to perceived sexual harassment in the workplace 8 years ago. If I so much as looked at a female coworker in a way that made her feel uncomfortable (I’m kinda awkward), I’d get called onto the carpet and chewed out very seriously for creating a Hostile Environment for her. (“Hostile Environment” being the code word for the kind of sexual harassment that doesn’t have to be perpetrated by one’s boss). Companies were extremely skittish of sexual harassment lawsuits after the whole Anita Hill thing. Even if they won a suit, they’d still have had to spend lotsa money defending themselves – the only defense was to run such a sqeaky-clean, zero-tolerance workplace that any allegations of sexual harassment would be thrown out of court for lack of evidence.
This furor seems to have died down in recent years. Hopefully, zero-tolerance policies in public schools will do likewise.
Freedom, I don’t think this has much to do with the “gun grabbers” as the same thing has basically occurred with cough drops (drugs) and nail clippers (knives). And I think it has even less to do with the Fed as these are, for the most part, local school districts setting these zero tolerance policies.
Gun-control opponents consistently deny that guns play a role in causing school shootings and instead blame a “lack of values” being taught. While I agree that this case is a ludicrous overreaction, isn’t having a rule against students pretending to kill each other exactly the kind of value they’re talking about?
I think so, yes. Actually I discourage my son from playing games where he shoots/gets shot, etc. I don’t specifically forbid it, but I do say I don’t like it, and I don’t play those games with him. I have no problem with a school having rules along those lines.
However, I think there is very little that a kindergartener should be suspended for, especially since they won’t understand the penalty at all.
This business reminds me of the idea that “other peoples’ children” need whatever but mine are fine. Were those parents asleep when the “Zero tolerance” rule was announced?
I’d bet most of them thought it was a great idea to protect their children from those other children…and would, of course, never apply to MY children.
Notice that some children knew this game had threats in it and decided to tell adults. The lines between real and not-real in children this age are not very firm.
Even a five year old should be able to understand a rule like - “Games with guns will not be played at school.”
Maybe “zero tolerance” won’t kill us.
Are you driving with your eyes open or are you using The Force? - A. Foley
Hear hear. Not to hijack the thread, but I think that anyone who has read both of these books will tend to notice disturbing similarities in real life, either now or in what’s predicted for the near future. Suspending kids for bringing nail clippers to school, encouraging them to rat one another out, and having them fingerprinted “for their protection” forms only part of the puzzle.
Other pieces? Doubleclick. Echelon. “Hate” crimes. The charade of a perpetual “war on drugs”.
Damn, Freedom… You can turn me stubbing my toe into an argument against gun control.
You show us a classic example of both fallacy by anecdote and argument from ridicule. It would be equally fallacious of me to say, “Look at what a one-track nutjob Freedom is! How can you be for gun ownership now?”
In case any complete morons {subliminal}CalifBoomer{/subliminal} are out there reading this post, gun control has nothing to do with suspending kindergartners for playing Cops & Robbers.
And blaming slavish adherence to rules on Clinton is like blaming Col. Sanders for the rise in beef consumption. I think this has way more to do with nutjob extremes of both left and right who scream for adherence to their static rules at the expense of common sense and ordinary human judgement.
I think the principal should take the stick from his fundament and put it in his back where his spine used to be.
Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.
“Zero Tolerance” = Zero Judgement= Zero paychecks.
Every time some idiot bureau-crap comes up with some “Zero-Tolerance” rule, soon after there is a good example of why “Zero tolerance” is “zero Brained”. Believe it or not, in the East Bay, one ultra-liberal school board took their “zero tolerance” on guns to a new extreme-- they demanded the POLICE disarm themselves prior to entering school property!!!
I did not let the kids have realistic looking guns, but I let them have toy swords, bows & etc to get that out of their system. The only “gun” was a toy flintlock. See, reasonable…
) do not believe that things will stop short of a total gun ban.