Reply #10: I think it stems more from Fear than zero tolerance rules [View All]

Because I don't know how this would fall under a 'rule'. She didn't have a weapon, she isn't 'threatening' violence (this wasn't a document delivere with a threat). I think it falls into the fear category. The adults in the school are afraid of kids. They think teens are out of control, and assume the worse. Especially after Columbine, but also a few of the earlier shootings, there has been a whole lot of "what signs could have been found" gnashing of teeth. I believe some former FBI agent even wrote a 'psychological profile' of kids that might snap, that was adopted and reviewed by many schools.

The consolidating of schools to make them larger and larger has made it harder for their to be any kind of relationships between students and teachers that can exist in schools of say 300 students and near impossible in schools of say 1800-3000 students. Thus the stereotypes and fear can dominate. Many large high schools, from an organizational stand point, seem to have a sort of institutional depression in which the adults think they can not really change things - all the problems are stacked up too high (its the parents fault, or its the poverty, or its that kids today don't want to learn, etc. etc.). In such an environment, nearly anything out of the norm can instill fear. I might worry about the fantasies expressed by the girl - but rather than advocate expulsion I think I would be more interested in speaking with her and her family, and if things seemed off would be more likely to recommend some kind of counseling rather than suspension/expulsion.

Just my two cents.