For Or Against "zero Tolerance Act" In Schools?

Q: Zero Tolerance" Rules and Laws Require Severe Punishment Not Only for Possessing Drugs or Guns, but Also Any Item Which "Looks Like" a Prohibited Item. Zero-tolerance policies spread in the 1990s as a tool to fight drug use and violence on campuses. Schools often suspend or expel students for having weapons or drugs, which can include over-the-counter medicine, says educational psychologist Cecil Reynolds of Texas A&M University. Verbal threats, fighting or sexual harassment also can get kids booted, he says. "There are cases such as the kindergarten boy who hugged two classmates. His teacher reported him for sexual harassment, and he was suspended."

A: This zero tolerance has gone way over the clouds. I think that we should remember first of all that kids will be kids and temptations will always be there. Their actions are only manifestations of what we have thought them whether it be thru t.v. or environment or home upbringing. The basic morals of family values have dissappeared mainly because some men can't act like fathers and stick around to help raise the child, or both parents are too busy working to give their kids the attention they are longing for. So now "basic tolerance" is brought in and the kids have to suffer for our innability to raise them properly with the rigt moral values of life. What I think should be done is have more p.t.a. meetings but maybe set it up so there are less parents

attending each session. That way teachers can have more time to talk to parents on a more personal level and even get to know them much better. Another thing to do is have more councelors in school who will talk with each individual student on a more personal and regular basis. That way they might just be able to get to the route of a problem before it manifest into something of no return. Most schools like to wait until there is a problem before they call in the student and sends them to a guidedance councelor. We must all remember that we were once kids too and we had pressure but the kids of today have far greater pressure than we did. Think the three srtike rule is by far better to use.