Zero Tolerance

A rally cry meaning We’re Not Gonna Take It Anymore. What aren’t we going to take anymore? Sounds vague-It is-In so many ways.

Zero Tolerance eliminates the right to be judged fairly and unbiased. It also takes mitigating circumstances out of the punishment picture.

Mitigating circumstances often come into play when it comes time to punish the guilty for their crimes. Insanity is a very common mitigating circumstance. In a recent local case possible brain trauma, drug & alcohol abuse and mob mentality were used as mitigating circumstances to reduce an individuals responsibility for a series of crimes he was convicted of. Basically believing the mitigating circumstances allowed to jury to recommend a less than typical punishment. Zero tolerance takes that away. Who and why no longer matter-Only Guilt.

Several years back, a local high school senior and her Mom spent a (1 week before graduation) weekend moving. Sometime during the move, a butter knife feel out of a box and slid under the seat in the teenagers car. Monday morning, after students were in class, security was doing a student parking lot sweep. Guess what they found on the back floorboard of this students car? Yep, a butter knife. The student, an honor student I might add, was called to the office and her Mom was called to the school. A representative of the School Board was called in. You would have thought this young lady had run naked down the hallway waving the knife and threatening to kill everyone. Instead, she didn’t even realize the knife was there. The student was expelled from the Collier County School District, was unable to take her final exams, unable to march across the stage with her class or participate in any of the senior class festivities for which she had worked so hard for. This student also had been offered a college scholarship which of course hinged on her graduating. Initially, the School Board was going to allow her to return to school the following school year to take her exams, but I think public outrage caused them to reconsider and they agreed she could return during summer school to take her exams.

Zero Tolerance didn’t allow for mitigating circumstances to be considered because zero tolerances is just what it says it is-ZERO TOLERANCE. Mitigating circumstances in this case are-Butter knife not a machete. Honor student not a thug. Never been in trouble in school or the community. Did I mention HONOR student with a full ride scholarship with a future that doesn’t include being a burden on society? There are several other cases of zero tolerance that come to mind, but it’s one specific story that got me to writing this to begin with.

A 9 year old boy in Staten Island NY was almost suspended after he brought a 2” toy lego gun to school. The fourth grader and a friend were playing with their lego’s in the school cafeteria when a teacher noticed the “deadly” weapon and the student was taken to the principles office and his parents called. After much discussion the principle decided suspension was not warranted. Ummmm DUH!!!! How is it even possible that any thing other than please put that toy away and don’t bring it back to school was done? Zero Tolerance is the answer to that question. The New York public school system has the same policy that almost all school systems have-Guns, toys or real, are not allowed on school grounds. Failure to obey results in immediate suspension or expulsion from the school district. Mitigating circumstances-That picture is the ACTUAL size of the toy gun that was brought to school. Does it look like it might be real? Does it look like the evil 9 year old was preparing to shoot up the school with it? Give me a break….Common sense has once again left the freakin building.

We (I use that term loosely) have become so afraid of letting someone violent slip under our radar that we no longer use common sense in deciding what is and isn’t a threat. I’m sure we can all remember those violent butter knife assaults that occurred on school campus’ before Zero Tolerance was enacted. Those menacing Lego Assault Rifles have mowed down countless innocent bystanders. What was Lego thinking making those things so compact and concealable? Terrorist I tell you, they’re out to take all the fun out of being a kid.

Now, I had a situation that was the perfect example of why Zero Tolerance was enacted in the first place.

Almost 2 years ago a coworker of mine made some very inappropriate comments on day before we clocked in. While I was sitting outside smoking he came up to me to chat. During the course of the conversation he said, in short, that he wanted to bring a couple of guns in and start blowing people away. He told me I was safe because he wanted me to sell tickets so we could make some dough off it. Now, I had known this guy for a couple years, we’d worked together and for the most part I considered him harmless. On the other hand, he was quite strange and if anybody was capable of that he was. I pondered what he said all morning, talked to some close friends and ultimately decided it wasn’t worth the risk that he was just spouting bullshit. I had to decide if I could live with myself if something did happen, to him or the other people I work with. I told my supervisor, who told his supervisor, who told his supervisor, who called in the Risk Manager, an attorney. I will admit that it bothered me, a lot. It bothered me for a very long time. I took a lot of shit for doing what I did, but non of it compared to arriving at work on day 3 weeks later and there he was, just like nothing happened. He received a reprimand, 2 week suspension without pay and was suppose to apologize to me. In the meantime I jumped every time the door behind me opened. I had anxiety attacks every time he walked through my workspace. I told repeatedly that I over-reacted, he’s harmless, he would never do something like that. They weren’t there, they didn’t hear him or see the look in his eyes when he said it. How dare he put me in that position. How dare he put me in a position when I have to decide if I know him well enough to discern his thought process. How dare my employer not transfer him to another department. How dare they care so little for my feelings and so much for his. If zero tolerance had been used in this case, he would have been fired. But mitigating circumstances were taken into consideration and off into the sunset he walked.

The same week this happen to me 5 elementary students were expelled from school for putting together a list of items they would need to get rid of a teacher they didn’t like.

Zero Tolerance-What a joke.