The Daily Grill

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Zero Tolerance For Zero Tolerance

Enough. School policy, like bureaucracy, seeks its own level of ineptitude. As proven in the recent case of 6-year-old Zachary Christie of Newark, Delaware, when he was suspended from school for bringing his Cub Scout camping utensil to school. The school in question (yeah, the school, not the kid, is in question) is the Downes Elementary School in the Christina School District. It seems that Zachary, in a fit of youthful Scouting zeal, brought his shiny new eating implement — a neato combo fork-spoon-bottle opener-knife — with him to school with the idea he'd show it off while eating his lunch with it.

Instead, he was confronted by a teacher as he got off the bus, who asked to see what the boy was holding in his hand. The potentially deadly super spork was handed over to the school principal and BAM — Zero Tolerance went in to action immediately! No warning. No phone call. Zachary was suspended from school pending a disciplinary hearing.

What?!

In a world of drive-by shootings, teen pregnancies, and unsafe sugary soft drinks, "the system" has the time, dedication and interest in clamping down on enthusiastic Cub Scouts and their eating tools? That's great. Even if the school has the wisdom — in the face of the media/blogging/twitterstorm that's currently raining down on it — to back off on this one, the damage done in terms of time and manpower wasted, not to mention the trauma of exposure that sweet little Zachary has had to undergo is ludicrous.

In the end, what we've discovered is that "zero tolerance" is simply a way for those who are supposed to be in charge to, instead, simply take the path of least resistance while disclaiming any responsibility for their actions. But why get down on the principal and other school district personnel for this? They are only following orders. It's maybe going a little far to equate lame school officials in suburban Delaware with military officers in Nazi Germany but hey, if the cop-out fits...

If you want to see what a renegade, reprobate young Zachary is, check out this video that this 6-year-old made, called "What Is My Job?", check out this video that Zachary made. And picture him running amok with his Cub Scout eating implement in hand.

Maybe this hoopla has you in a cage-rattling mood. If so, you can check out the Help Zachary website. There's a petition and a list of email addresses for every misguided yahoo on the Christina School District Board. Why not write them all and let them know that you've got zero tolerance for zero tolerance?