ZERO TOLERANCE POLICIES ON PUNISHMENT - NOT GOOD FOR OUR CHILDREN?

The Wall Street Journal reported this afternoon, http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704107204574473331382043514.html about two incidents of "stupidity" involving the judgment of public school officials in other states. Some of the schools in Lake County purportedly have similar zero tolerance policies - as you will see in reading these incidents - nothing replaces common sense. Hopefully we won't see the same types of lapses in judgment occur here.

"Zero-Tolerance Watch Matthew Whalen, 17, is an Eagle Scout who has completed 10 weeks of military training and plans to attend West Point. But he's worried his plans to serve his country may be thwarted by the geniuses who run Lansingburgh Senior High School in Troy, N.Y., where Whalen is a senior. In an interview with FoxNews.com, he explains what happens:

He said his school's assistant principal, Frank Macri, approached him on Sept. 21 and asked him if he was carrying a knife.

"I was taken down to the office, and they told me that a student told them that I was carrying a knife," Whalen said.

He said he told them "they could search me and everything, and they said, 'There's no need for that.' " . . .

"And they said, 'Do you own a knife?' I said, 'Yes, I'm a soldier and an Eagle Scout--I own a knife.'

"And they were like, 'Well, is it in your car or anything?' And I told them, 'Yeah, it's in my car right now.'

"And they asked me to show it to them. I didn't realize it was going to be a problem. I knew it wasn't illegal--my police chief grandfather gave the knife to me."

Whalen said he took school administrators to his car because he thought their fears would be allayed when they saw it was just a 2-inch knife.

"They thought I had a dagger in my car or something like that, so I thought yeah, I'd show it to them," Whalen said.

"I showed it to them, and they told me I had a knife on school property and had to be suspended."

But things didn't end there, Whalen said.

"They brought a cop in, who told them 'he's not breaking any laws, so I can't charge him with anything.' "

Nonetheless, the principal suspended him from school for five days. Then, at a "superintendent hearing" that the superintendent didn't bother to attend, the principal quadrupled the punishment. Whalen says he worries that the disciplinary action on his record will hurt his chances for admission to West Point. Let's hope Principal Macri is shamed into backing down.

Good sense seems to have prevailed in Newark, Del., where, as we noted yesterday, five-year-old Zachary Christie was sentenced to 45 days in reform school for bringing a Cub Scout utensil to school. Reports NBC News:

On Tuesday night the school board made a hasty change to its code of conduct. The seven-member board voted unanimously to reduce the punishment for kindergartners and first-graders who bring weapons to school or commit other violent offenses to a suspension ranging from three to five days. . . .

School board member John Mackenzie told The Associated Press before the meeting that he was surprised school officials did not use common sense and disregard the policy in Zachary's case. The need for common sense to prevail over the letter of the law was a recurring theme among the boy's supporters and school safety experts.

It's amazing how often our government schools turn out to be run by people who need to be told of "the need for common sense to prevail.""

Perhaps those school districts in Lake County who have zero tolerance policies should consider implementing a "common sense" disciplinary policy instead?

Let us have your thoughts. As always you can contact us at carecommitteepac@yahoo.com.