6 year-old a victim of overkill
A young Pittsburgh-area boy was suspended from school yesterday because he dared to violate the district’s Zero Tolerance policy. His crime?
He brought his grandfather’s Swiss Army Knife in for Show and Tell.
Once again we see to what ridiculous limits local school districts will go to keep our kids safe from violence.
Once again a school is protected, by its Zero Tolerance policy, from having to use common sense and employ a little responsibility. Okay, the kid brought a knife to school; was he sneaking around, intending to use it on anyone? No. He wanted, instead, to show it off because he thought it was cool, with all the gadgets and tools.
Does anyone else think it’s cool? Not the hysterics in the School Board, that’s for sure.
"He has a knife! Get’im! Throw him out!"
Come on; it’s not like he brought a Rambo Knife, for cryin’ out loud, or even an AK-47 his grandpap took off the body of a dead VC he’d killed in ‘Nam. He brought a glorified penknife.
I've said before that think that Zero Tolerance policies are ridiculous.
They’re just blanket solutions to individual problems.
I keep harking back to the story I heard some years ago about a kid who came to school on Halloween dressed as a fireman. He was carrying a plastic axe, and thus was sent home for violating the school’s ZT policy. That was utterly asinine.
Now, I completely understand that the modern era has produced some horrors in our schools, but is suspending a 6 year-old for something so trivial really the way to go? What kind of message is that sending?
That even relatively minor violations of the established rules will be punished with Draconian measures? Welcome to the good ole US of A, Land of the Free.
My question (and, in my opinion, it also should have been the question of the school’s administration) is this: did the kid have a history of behavior which may have indicated that he may, indeed, have used the knife in a violent manner? If so, then act accordingly.
If not, then just let him give his speech, take the knife until the last bell rings, usher him into the office and explain to him why what he did was unacceptable. There was no need to make such a fuss and suspend him. Overkill.
You know; if we REALLY want to do this Zero Tolerance thing and do it right, we need to do it all the way. All or nothing.
We need to get rid of anything in our schools that leads to aggressive behavior, and that includes…..sports.
Get rid of sports in our schools, and we’ll see a great reduction in violence. Sports lead to aggressive actions and stressful, negative feelings, like anger and competitive fervor.
Especially, and I think you’ll agree, contact sports like football, wrestling, hockey…hey, even basketball and soccer.
Sports that employ gear which could be used as weapons; there go baseball and softball, that’s for sure. Dodgeball! Oh, my! Catch me before I faint! We used to call it "Murderball"! No more of that!
In fact, let’s just ditch any and all competitive activities; competition definitely leads to bad feelings.
After all, in any competition, there have to be winners and losers, and the losers often have their feelings hurt, their self-esteem diminished. We can’t have that! I mean, such things often lead to thoughts of violence and revenge against those who bested them.
Aptitude tests will have to go. So will reading aloud, students doing math problems on the board, spelling and answering questions aloud. And the grading system in general. Out! We can't have one kid getting better or worse grades than another, right? Someone might feel bad and shoot someone.
It all leads to poor self-esteem for those who are, perhaps, a little slower on the uptake than others. This is what leads to violence, people.
We’ll just cut out all competition and give everyone a blue ribbon, okay? Why? Well, I dunno; if we can’t have competition for fear of violence, we could maybe give them for being….how about for being a member of the human race?
Yeah, that would do it! That way, no feelings will be hurt. Everyone gets a blue ribbon! Happiness will reign! School violence will end.
And if we’re not careful this, or something like it, could be exactly where we’re heading.