Zero Tolerance is Absolutely, Positively Not Allowed
J. Kevin Tumlinson

For a year now I've been teaching "at risk" kids in an alternative school. You may remember the kind of place where I work (I know I do!). It's that dreaded, hell-like, ultimate place of punishment and exile that you were threatened with throughout high school. It usually goes by some sort of acronym-A.S.P, C.V.A.E., S.A.C. Who knows what they stand for? It doesn't matter. The point is, no matter what it was called in YOUR day, it's the bottom line, never want to go there, somebody shoot me please, end of the road for the disruptive student.

My part in the whole program is to teach the high school kids. At any given time, I can have up to 25 "bad" kids, ranging from freshmen to seniors and each having up to four subjects. This means that I usually have to write assignments for 25 subjects. Feel sorry for me yet?

Don't. Save your pity for the kids. Here's why.

HOW DID YOU GET HERE?

I try not to ask my kids how they got there. It's not really relevant. It doesn't matter if they got in a fight, got caught with drugs, wrote graffiti on the bathroom wall, or threatened a teacher with bodily harm. They got caught, they got sentenced, and now it's my job to educate them.

I love it! It is, hands down, the best job I've ever had! Of COURSE I get some kids that are heavy on attitude and light on personal responsibility. Of COURSE I get upset when a kid that is perfectly capable of doing the work is too lazy to even try. Of COURSE I get the sudden urge to strangle the little punk who just lied to my face about his homework. But that's in the job description for every teacher in the United States. And as far as I've been able to tell, my kids are no worse or no better than any average high school classroom in the country.

So I make a point, most of the time, to not bother asking what they did to come to me. Sometimes, though, when I get a kid that is obviously well behaved, smart, even courteous, I just can't help myself. I have to ask why.

And I'm almost always shocked and disturbed by the answer.

Not because the kid did something so horrific that it's repulsive to me. I've seen a lot, I've even DONE a lot-I can hang. No, the ones that shock me are the kids who got sent up for just being flat out, plain ol' TYPICAL. The kids who, in the process of being KIDS and dare I say STUDENTS got caught up in the shark-like feeding frenzy of zero tolerance.

Case in point:

I had been teaching for only six months when I got a tall, lanky kid named "Jack" (obviously, his name was NOT Jack. Names are changed to protect the innocent-me). Jack wasn't exactly a model student, but I would say he was pretty average-decent grades, the occasional six-weeks honor roll, no real discipline problems in three years of high school. He didn't drink, he didn't smoke and he had never touched any drugs that weren't prescribed to him. And yet, one fine Monday, here he was in my class. After a week of knowing him I had to know why.

Jack's father had recently decided to retire. He still had some time left on the countdown, but his company, in a show of appreciation and gratitude, threw him a retirement party. Part of the festivities included parting gifts for the retiree. Among the fruit and nut baskets, cigars, fishing poles and "old fart" baseball caps, Jack's dad got a pocketknife.

Jack's dad, accepting all the gifts graciously, tossed everything into his truck, and in an effort not to lose the knife threw it unopened into the glove box. He went home for the evening, and the unloaded his treasures, unfortunately forgetting to fish the pocket knife out of the glove box. And there it sat for several days.

At some point, Jack asked if he could drive dad's truck to school. "Of course," Jack's dad said (I'm only guessing, but it must have been something along those lines). He hands over the keys and Jack is on his way. Driving safely, of course.

Jack parks the truck in the school parking lot and gets on to class-on time and with all of his homework done. He goes through the early periods, and probably starts looking forward to lunch. And then… he gets the call.

During a routine drug dog sweep of lockers and cars in the parking lot, the heroic animal alerted on a smell in Jack's truck. It could have been anything, really. The scent of some meal that Jack's dad had eaten and spilled a bit, the smell of something Jack himself might have stepped in, maybe even the smell of the cigars his dad had gotten days earlier, still lingering. The result, though, was a mandatory and thorough search of the car. Including the glove box.

The knife was found almost immediately, and just as immediately Jack was taken into the principal's office where his parents were called and he was informed that the school's zero tolerance policy demanded that he be suspended from school for three days and then sentenced to no less than thirty days in the alternative center.

It should be noted that the knife-the cause of all of this consternation and subsequent punishment-was still shrink wrapped in plastic and tucked into an unopened box that was sealed on both ends with glue. It should also be noted that the truck itself did not belong to the student, but to the student's parents, as did the knife. And while we're noting things, let's take particular note of the fact that the student had no knowledge of the knife, had never been known to carry one, and the knife itself was not found on his person!

But the zero tolerance policy demanded punishment, and school officials washed their hands of it completely.

Does this strike anyone else as being just plain wrong?

WASN'T TOLERANCE THE WHOLE POINT?

I may be way off the mark here, but I was always told (in school!) that the point of education was to teach tolerance. Well, if not THE point, then certainly ONE OF the points. Our job as teachers and parents is to teach kids to be tolerant of other cultures, other ideas and philosophies, and of other human beings in general and particular. So…what the heck happened here?

How are we supposed to teach tolerance to anybody if we have a very open and unbending policy of NOT being tolerant? They say that most people learn by example, so what are the kids supposed to make of this? Say one thing but do another?

I know what the excuse…er…problem is. School administrators are very busy people. They don't have time to look at things on a case-by-case basis. They can't possibly be expected to deal with each and every student that passes in front of their desk in a thorough and judicious manner.

BULL!

Ok, let's spell it out. Our justice system may not be perfect but at least it makes the attempt. If I'm suddenly arrested for knocking over a liquor store, at least somebody has to go through the effort of proving I was there and not two hundred miles away at the time of the robbery. The most basic precept of our legal system is this (say it with me!): you are INNOCENT until PROVEN guilty.

The zero tolerance policy, however, nullifies this core principle. Under zero tolerance, there is simply no excuse. There are no alibis. There is no justification. It doesn't matter if some irresponsible, disgruntled grounds keeper is the one that tossed his empty beer can into the open bed of your pick-up truck while you were in second period. It's YOUR truck, therefore YOU get punished.

So long, kiddies! It's off to communism for you!

Ok, ok, I'm venting at this point. I'm frustrated, ok? I'm aggravated by the notion that little Billy, four year honor student and head of the Feed the Elderly program is being sent to ME for punishment for having a BUTTER knife in the bed of his pick-up. I'm sick and tired of little Cindy being sent to me because she had the AUDACITY to take a Midol! I'm outraged that I get the valedictorian for thirty days because he was singing the chorus to a rap song that's considered to be gang oriented.

How in God's name do we teach kids how to deal with the real world if we insist they live under this kind of tyranny? What are we preparing them for?

ONE POSSIBLE SOLUTION

So what do I thin should be done? Well, let me start by saying this: I can't offer a perfect answer. I can offer some suggestions, but I'm just one person and I can't think of every possibility (if I could, I wouldn't have thought parachute pants were cool back in high school). But there just happens to be a built in system for determining school policy-the school board. I propose, then, that the school board should meet and discuss the issue and dog-gone-it they just aren't allowed to leave until they come up with a solution!

Here's one that might work:

How about a special committee that does NOTHING but oversee discipline problems. No, wait, that already exists. It's called the discipline committee. What do they do again? Seems like these days they just sentence people. Hey, maybe we can make it more interesting by calling it something cool, like "The Justice Committee!" Doesn't that sound like it should be headed by Superman? Maybe the chairman can wear a cape!

Ok, so we have a committee… how about this? We could appoint an administrative official in the school who handles discipline problems. No, no, there I go again. We already HAVE one of those. The Vice Principal usually takes care of discipline matters.

Hmmm… now I'm starting to tap the bottom of the barrel here. Ok, what about this? In each classroom we can put a person who is responsible for maintaining discipline and order and…oh, there I go again! We have those too! We call them "teachers," and if I remember my job description I think that "maintain discipline and order" are actually PART of the job!

Ok, sarcasm levels have become unbearable. I apologize. But if you take anything at all from this article, I'd like you to take this: zero tolerance is just plain STUPID. It's lazy and unjust and unfair. It short circuits justice in favor of a no headaches, no stress method of pawning the kid off on someone else.

Zero tolerance is completely useless.

I've taken a stand against it in my own school system. I speak out against it often, and when I receive kids that I feel were caught up in the "system," I try to help them get through the process quickly and with as little stress as possible. I've even put my job on the line and spoken out against my campus administrators about the zero tolerance policy that WE have, supporting the student that I felt was being victimized. So I guess what I'm asking at this point is will you give me a hand? Write a letter to the governor. Go to a PTA meeting. Contact your school board. Surely I'm not the only one who feels this way about this hideous, horrific policy.

Say something, will ya?

J. Kevin Tumlinson is a writer and a schoolteacher living in Lake Jackson, TX. He's decided to give peace a chance..