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One of the unfortunate aspects of our new found interaction on web services like Face book is what I have termed the “drive by moral superiority posting”. First, I am as guilty of this as anyone. I find some link sitting out there that sums up my feelings on a subject, and presents those feelings in a way that makes people who disagree with me seem downright silly. I hit the “post to face book” button on my newsreader with some smug comment like “YEAH, HOW YA LIKE ME NOW!” and go about my day, confident that I have stuck it to the proverbial “man”.

It was a long time before I realized that there are three types of people that read these posts, those that agree with them, those that disagree with them, and those that do not care either way. The posts are like bumper stickers in that no one has ever had their opinion changed by them, and the posts (and the bumper stickers) seem to function solely as a self esteem booster for the poster and his or her allies and as perceived salt in the wound of those who disagree. Those who don’t care will simply ignore it or shake their head and say “well, John is at it again”.

Because of this I made the decision about a year ago to ONLY post links that I see as helpful to others in either a technical or social way. Web services that I like, how to live a better life self help articles, and funny little things from Failblog were the bulk of my link sharing. I do have the occasional relapse, but for the most part I resist the urge.

Someone on my friends list posted this link.

This is not the actual link she posted, but it will suffice as there are 1207 news articles on this event along with the requisite comments either affirming the lunacy of the decision or backing the school boards decision by pointing out the “what if” scenarios. This article started me thinking about how we can have knee jerk reactions to news stories without really thinking about the deeper issues. All this stems from my firm belief that my profession (ironically – education) is utterly failing at the teaching of critical thinking skills, due primarily to the fact that most people devalue common sense and critical thinking skills in schools in favor of more tangible, but meaningless scores on standardized tests.

I have to say that I agree that the way this was handled was absolutely batshit insane, even by zero tolerance standards. I would also point out that zero tolerance is the unfortunate end result of the litigious society that our country has become and that this instance is but an extreme example of that culture. My wife and I have had many discussions about this topic. Pretty much every time a news story about something like this comes on, my wife and I get in an ever escalating exchange of beliefs. She tries to tell me that the school made a bad decision. I try to get her to understand that, although I agree with her completely on the moral implications of the decision, the decision had to be what it was. There was no choice. Schools are at the mercy of  so many forces that want to profit off of them in a variety of ways. The decision of zero tolerance is a defense, not a mean spirited power grab.

First, a hypothetical  scenario starring “Timmy”. Timmy is a dream student. Timmy is the type of student that makes me want to come to work every day. He loves what I teach and makes me get excited about it, fueling my teaching and moving it in different directions. Timmy plays clarinet in the school band and he is good. He is so good that he is working with a private teacher and that teacher is helping Timmy in learning how to trim and shape his own reeds. Timmy, like anyone, makes mistakes, and in this instance his mistake was to bring the blade he uses to trim reeds to school in his clarinet case. This is an honest, innocent mistake but a mistake nonetheless. Timmy’s band director notices the blade and is bound by policy to confiscate the item and report it. He does this quietly and notifies the administration. Administration only sees Timmy when he is being recognized for something, so they are amazed that they are even dealing with this issue and warn him not to do it again, calling his mother to come in and pick up the blade.

Now Steve enters the story. Steve has issues. He is a frequent disruptor of class and often bullies other children to the point where they are put in unsafe situations. He has a healthy disrespect of his teachers and of most adults in general. None of this makes him a bad person. There are usually reasons why a student acts this way but those reasons don’t absolve him from taking responsibility for his actions, they hopefully do give adults insight into ways to help him change his behavior. Steve likes to play the tough kid and decides to bring a rather long Case hunting knife to school. He shows it off to his friends and shows it to the kids he bullies in a threatening way. All of this gives Steve power, control, and self esteem – three things that he sadly lacks in his life. Steve gets caught in the boy’s locker room showing off and gets escorted to the office in a very public manner by the school’s security officer.

Steve’s parents are called in. Steve’s parents are at a loss. They don’t know when they lost control but they have, and they are starting to seek things to detract attention from it. The situation with Timmy is now well known because both Timmy and his parents privately discussed it with friends, and it is known by Steve’s parents who contact a lawyer. Why was this other student afforded all this consideration while their child was hauled off to the office by a uniformed policeman and suspended? Clearly their child was not afforded the same standard of treatment that Timmy was.

Whatever the outcome, this ends up badly for the administration. They will get criticism and lose support from some of their most supportive parents if they come down hard on Timmy. They will be seen as “soft on crime” if they go easy on Steve. If they use their “best judgment” and temper the punishment to the situation they will constantly be called upon to defend it either to the board or in a court of law, and have any decision they make questioned for favoritism.

A good number of parents feel that Steve got a bum deal. I wonder how they would feel if there was horseplay and their child was pushed into Steve’s knife. We can also assume that some parents would call for Timmy to be held to the code of the policy. I find that parents like this are all for zero tolerance until their child is the one with behavior that is not being tolerated.

This isn’t whining, it’s the reality of public schools. I just get amazed when people don’t understand why we have zero tolerance. They hear a story like this and ask “Are these school officials crazy?” No, they are not. They are doing exactly what you elected and hired them to do. Zero tolerance means that there is no judgment, no common sense. There is only cause and effect. You cannot have a zero tolerance policy that is merely “zero tolerance-ish”.  On the other side – 45 days of suspension? You really are painting yourself into a corner with that policy. It sounds like a policy that is the end result of political grandstanding from both sides of the aisle in that district. An ever toughening zero tolerance policy to get support! Then some poor kid gets nailed by it and the media feeds off of it for a week.

This also makes me reflect on how much we should allow public opinion to determine school policy. Obviously the public should have a great deal of input. I don’t question this, but the reality is that in 17 years of teaching I have found that many people  base their educational policy opinions on a belief that every person has (or should have) values, resources, and a moral outlook equal to their own. Obviously this is not the case and it results in a good deal of disagreement. The person that sees the big picture is a rare beast. I also worry abut the fact that a good number of people feel validated to intellectualize about what is wrong with public education, while having no children and not having stepped into a school since they graduated.

You cannot allow a culture of zero tolerance to develop to this degree and then stand around with your jaw dropping open wailing “aww come on!” You cannot wait until the worst case scenario occurs before you give schools the autonomy to use “common sense” and “good judgment”. You must defend the decisions school officials make. You simply MUST deal with those parents that live in the “land of a thousand Mercedes” and have their lawyer call the school when they don’t get their way. Those parents are the reason why kids get suspended for 45 days for bringing a spoon to school, not administrators.

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