...but it was a 2 inch long lego toy...gun paranoia run amok. http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local...g_at_a_lack_of_common_sense_as_son_buste.html
More proof the only thing holding our educational system back are the idiots administrating it. Obviously an Affirmative Action hiree.
I'll ignore the thinly-veiled racist comment and remark on the main issue at hand. The school district's hands are tied in the matter, they have NO CHOICE but to have zero-tolerance for anything. And do you know why? That's right, kiddies.. lawyers. Regardless of what the school district does, they are under threat from lawyers. What happens if the friend of that kid who played with the 2-inch gun went home and told his/her mom that he saw a kid playing with a gun, with no other preface? That mom screams bloody murder, sues the school district for failing to protect her child, yadda yadda. The fact that it was a 2-inch toy gun at that point becomes almost moot. We have been conditioned by the legal industry over the last 40 years that all issues are litigious. That there's no personal accountability anymore, because it's always someone else's fault, and they should PAY for your problems. Common sense took a hike a long time ago, and entities like that school district are trying to protect themselves with the only tool they have at their disposal: the complete eradiction of anything that it deems potentially violent or threatening. If innocent kids or misunderstandings get caught up in the process, then that's collateral damage that the district is willing to risk as the lesser of two evils. The fact that the mother is threatening to sue over HER child's mistreatment is yet another data point in how no-win the climate is for anyone these days.... except, of course, for the lawyers, who prey and profit off of this culture shift that they had a huge hand in creating.
Schools frequently misinterpret the law...do you really think they'd lose a case brought by a parent because the school only mildly disciplined a child for bringing a a lego gun to school? No, their lack of common sense is to blame, not "America".
Irrelevent. The School District would have to spend money on it's own lawyers to defend itself against the lawsuit, even if they won. Who wins in that situation? Nobody but the lawyers. The court systems are FLOODED with bogus, ridiculous, farcical lawsuits which well-meaning, good people, companies, and agencies have to hire lawyers to defend themselves against. Regardless of the outcome of the trials, the lawyers get paid. The Courts get paid in court costs, justifying THEIR existance. And we, the non-lawyers who can't understand how common sense and rational behavior can't solve these seemly trivial problems, pay the price. Open your eyes and see the society that is around you. Try wiping your ass without a legal document from the company that makes the toilet paper warning you not to get a paper cut on your anus because you crumpled up the tissue incorrectly.
It's easy to see you have a crusade about lawyers in America going on...so I doubt you're in the mood for a calm discussion, but... Obviously there is an issue with litigiousness on some levels...but a school worried if they don't suspend a kid for bringing a 2 inch lego to school is a school run by morons...they aren't intelligently reacting to the legal climate in the country...they are just plain dumb. A school obviously needs to be cautious in how they react to situations, but you can't just absolve them of their responsibility to be rational because of a hypothetical lawsuit you created to support your argument.
Lawsuits like the one I described are hardly hypothetical. I wish they were. I don't agree with "zero-tolerance" at all, but I understand it's purpose. It's not "moronic", it's highly thought-out and, I'm sure, impemented with the greatest hesitation. This is simply the society we live in today... it's all CYA.
Well the one you mention IS hypothetical. No one threatened to sue that school if they didn't punish the kid. Quite frankly my opinion is that it is moronic as it makes no allowance for mitigating circumstances...and in fact the school itself realized they'd made a mistake and reversed course...so even they realized they were being morons.
Zero Tolerance means just that: Zero tolerance. In this situation, I find it a silly policy. But if that's the policy, either enforce it or change it.
