Are Zero Tolerance Policies the Mark of a Great Nation

Zero Tolerance Policies are Irresponsible

Every time I hear about a "Zero Tolerance Policy" I just want to smack the author(s) of the policy. Not a violent fighting kind of smack mind you, but one of those back-of-the-head, you-dummy smacks. What the hell is wrong with these people that they are so willing to abrogate all personal responsibility and common sense for the safety of blamelessness. Read More >>>

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These weenies don't have the courage to make a decision, the common sense to know right from wrong, or the integrity to take responsibility for their actions. If you are going to make a policy that affects people's lives, you should have the personal responsibility to be able to defend it. And I would love to have the opportunity to have a conversation with anyone trying to justify any kind of  "Zero Tolerance Policy."

It seems like at least once every week some crazy example of a Zero Tolerance policy at work makes national news. And how intelligent do you think those policy makers look to us average folk then? And the knotheads that enforce these policies are even worse weenies than the authors. They just throw up their hands and say, "Sorry, nothing I can do about it, it's the policy." Bull! What ever happened to standing up for right and wrong? What happened to being responsible enough to make a decision?

Here's a couple examples that really piss me off. Teachers ... the people we trust to educate our children, seem to be the worst culprits. Or at least they seem to be the one with the most egregious examples that make the news.

• a 6-year old new Cub Scout is so thrilled with his first outdoor camping experience that he brings his new Cub Scout eating utensil to class for Show-and-Tell. It was neat, it was like a pocket knife with a fold-out spoon, and a fold-out fork, and yes ... a fold-out knife blade that was very similar to the dull butter knife you would use at home. Oh my God! that qualifies as a knife, and the school has a Zero Tolerance Knife policy. The teacher, being a good establishment droid, hauls this dangerous law-breaker straight to the principle,
  

where he is immediately suspended for x-days. ( I forgot how many). There are your tax dollars and state educational system at work. Neither one of these weenies had the courage to make a distinction between this Cub Scout and some hoodlum with a switch-blade. And these are the responsible educators teaching your children!

• another Boy Scout, this time an Eagle Scout, the highest and hardest rank to achieve, had his backpack and camping gear for an upcoming weekend camp-out locked in his car trunk. Let me repeat that, this gear was stashed and locked in his car trunk. You are already ahead of me aren't you? That's right, his camping gear included a camping knife. Wait! Don't steal my thunder. But yes, some teacher found out about the gear in his car trunk, and yes, it was another school district with one of those grand Zero Policies concerning knives, and yes this Eagle Scout was also suspended. Or maybe he was expelled, I don't remember. Anyway, another case where supposedly intelligent responsible educators don't have the gonads to stand up for right and wrong.
• .One more, this one is even worse. It was a 5-year old kindergartner's birthday, and to celebrate it with her classmates, her mom made a special birthday cake and sent it to the little girl's class to share with everyone. She even sent paper birthday plates, and birthday napkins, and, no ... oh my God, she even sent a cake-knife to cut and serve the cake!. I know I can stop here. I know you get the rest. Yep. Suspended for violating the school districts Zero Tolerance policy. 

Don't even try to defend these knuckle-heads by saying they didn't have a choice, it's the policy. Of course they had a choice! They're supposed to have a brain aren't they. Little Cub Scout's teacher could have said: That's a great camping tool but it has a knife blade too. So I'll hold it for you till after school so you can take it home. Duh! Too much cerebral activity? That intelligent Principal, (the teacher's boss), could have told that Eagle Scout he needed to get his camping gear off school property. Nope, makes to much sense. And the kindergarten teacher, gee, how ingenious of her to think to cut the cake herself and then tell the little girl she would keep the cake-knife until mommy picked her up from school. Nooo ...  that would take a modicum of common sense and personal integrity. We can't tolerate those attributes in our educators can we?

But those examples are only the symptoms of a problem, not the problem itself. The problem is what has happened to our society. No one wants to be responsible for making a decision. We no longer have a sense of responsibility. We're too afraid of litigation, of being wrong. Every body sues for everything now. Hell, people have even been sued for trying to help accident victims!

Political Correctness has ruined our personal values! You can't call a spade-a-spade, because that would be labeling. You can't pull that Middle Eastern-looking thug out of line because your brain is screaming somethings wrong with this picture, that would be profiling. You can't tell that drunken bum to stop pissing in your yard, because he's one of the less-fortunate, forget that he's a lazy moocher that doesn't have anything because he's never worked a day in his life and expects hard-working citizens to support him.

It's that attitude, and people's cowardliness that have led to these indefensible Zero Tolerance policies. Nobody wants any personal responsibility. Everybody is a victim. Nobody has the courage to stand up for themselves. It's always someone elses' fault.

Here just take this pill, follow the rules, and stand over there with the other nice little droids. Don't worry, we know what's best, we'll take care of you.

OOORAHH! I'm heading for the hills. You folks stay here if you want, but I'll use my knife to cut my own steak, thank you very much.

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