Zero Tolerance gone Overboard

Somebody came across an old example I had posted nearly a year ago about zero tolerance striking again. He wrote me with his story:

My name is Adam Liston. I read your article about the 1st grader and have a similar story that might interest you. I am a 12th grader in California, and on my way to the shooting range, I dropped my buddy off back at my high school, and a maintenance man saw my shotgun in my rack in the parking lot next to the school. As a result, the next day at school I was arrested and spent the day in county jail, I now face felony charges for being within 1000 feet of a school, my arraignment is tomorrow (feb 13) and will find out the formal charges. I have been suspended for the last month, and had the last 10 hours of the 30 hour expulsion hearing today. The entire community has been saying to take a look at my case in separate light, due to the fact there was no harm intended and that I'm a good kid. The school is now saying they need to consider "consistency", because they recently expelled a gang banger for having a pistol at school. This is just the type of bullshit that is evident in the 1st graders case. Feel free to put this story up on your site, I think people would find it interesting how fucking GREAT zero tolerance is. Please write me back with your thoughts on the matter.

The story was covered online here.

Zero Tolerance is overkill in most places. I can understand their reasoning for security, but is it worth panicking people? I remember when I was in high school, I went to a high school full of folks that liked to go hunting. One time, a guy was planning on leaving on a trip after school, so had his shotgun in the window rack of his pickup. The school was evacuated, kid was detained, and suspended. Overkill? Hell yes. While I'm not a big gun person, I would've probably felt safter with him having a gun than a lot of folks (and yes, his car was locked, and there was a trigger lock, so you can't say that "Well somebody else could've broken in to his car and go it.").

Posted by Jake on 02/18/04 @ 04:21 PM
Posted in Sad | 5 Comments | Permalink

5 Comments

Rick said on 02/18/04 @ 04:50 PM:
My school was probably one of the ones that helped get the zero tolerance things going. So many people are afraid of school shootings and such.

I have to say, in this case, if he had brough his gun ON CAMPUS WHILE HE WAS AT SCHOOL, it would be a different story, and something should be done. Everyone knows you're not supposed to bring a gun to school, duh. When i was in middle school, I had some .22 bullets in my pocket from when we went shooting and i had a gun where you had to load it one at a time, and I got suspended for that too. While I still think it was a bunch of crap, Its just the way it is.

Zero tolerance has gone way overboard. Maybe we need to have a "Some Tolerance" policy, you know, for when kids do something stupid, but really meant no harm at all, and really didnt even reallize they were doing it?

Well, probably more I could say, but its time to go home.

Jon said on 02/19/04 @ 12:00 AM:
Where did you go to high school?

Jake Ortman said on 02/19/04 @ 08:41 AM:
Me? Mountain View here in Bend.

Rick said on 02/19/04 @ 12:42 PM:
Thurston, in Springfield.

Jon said on 02/19/04 @ 11:50 PM:
Mountain View, I thought so... I just didn't remember off the top of my head any particular gun incident. Ah, well.

I was Redmond High, incidentally.

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