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Love this column! Can't imagine why people create these stupid policies! I once worked for an elementary school that attempted a zero-tolerance policy for weapons -- real or toys, anywhere on the grounds or at any sponsored event, no exceptions. Now, in broad theory, not having weapons at school is a good idea: guns and knives generally shouldn't be brought to school. Oh, wait, don't we have a cooking program? They use knives in that class -- big ones. And is it *really* a big deal if a teacher keeps a can of pepper spray locked in her car? That, too, was banned: no weapons anywhere on the premises, ever. Do you really want to suspend a kid for *accidentally* bringing a neon-colored water pistol to school? So you've got a kid who put a toy in his backpack on his way home from a playdate, and forgot to take it out, so it ends up at school, where a smart kid would leave it in his backpack (because you're not supposed to bring toys to school in general) and quietly take it home. But the policy, as proposed, said that the correct response to this obviously harmless mistake is to call the police, have the kid arrested, and then not let him come back to school for three days! For forgetting about something that could not possibly be mistaken for a real weapon, even if you were half-blind?! Speaking of police, the proposed policy contained no exceptions for police! Supposedly, if the school called the local police department, then the officers weren't allowed to show up unless they left all their weapons off-campus -- remember, it's not good enough to just lock them up in your vehicle! -- so we couldn't have actually had a police response, even to a real threat. This, by the way, was contrary to state law. I killed the zero-intelligence proposal. The weapons policy is now more than one page long, provides for reasonable limits, and demands common sense.

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First off, I LOVE your column!! I can't wait to read it every Sunday. I loved THIS column and want to know what is wrong with people? Do they smoke weed in the teachers lounge, while eating cupcakes and laughing about what STUPID idiotic thing they can get away with?? I can always laugh at your columns, but not today! Can you print the SCHOOL name in your column?? Can you talk your family into taking this to court?? Can they at least SUE the family who hit your nephew in the head?? That would be fun, huh?? I am sure they could not put any ice on your nephews head as water is a chemical (H2O I learned from my public school training) and as we all know, chemicals are what DRUGS are made up of! I have always thought that ZERO tolerance was stupid. That is why we have judges in our courts, to decide what really happened. Zero tolerance is just another name for "I am too lazy to find out what happened, and I have no common sense anyway so I can get rid of anyone I want." This, as well at the other stories you sited, are just too much. I am usually ALL FOR the school. BUT, I have ZERO tolerance for adult idiots! This was like the Nun who pinched my brother's cheek in 1962, because he and a friend were pushing each other while in line. She left a mark. My 92 pound mother, who never said a peep, went to the school and YELLED at the NUN, in front of the whole class!! The Nun made the mistake of leaving a mark, AND messing with Mom's favorite! (another column)