Randy Cassingham's Blog

Posted by rewinn, Mercer Island on November 15, 2008:

I just had to google the original Savannah morning news report (...kudos Randy on a crisp and accurate synopsis...); its details and publicly available information about Pooler Elementary are not encouraging.

It seems that the teachers had received "gang-identification training"; this may be where she got the idea a bloody teardrop was a gang symbol instead of standard Halloween issue. I would suggest this "training" was, to say the least, not very effective.

It also seems that Jordan was a new student from out of town. "We moved to Pooler thinking he'd be in a more diverse school with better opportunities," [his mother] told the newspaper. The mother's name, LaKisha, is used almost exclusively by African-Americans; we can assume the boy is mixed-race or black. Poller Elementary's student population is 74% white (state average 48%), 15% black (state average 38%).

Can it be that no other student drew a mask with something that could be interpreted as a "gang symbol"? No blood? No flames? No skulls?

Put it together, folks.

It is comforting to think that Zero Tolerance is merely Being Stupid. We can mock the foolish and hope to cure ZT with education (...and of course more mockery ;-)

But ZT is not merely stupidity. It can be a convenient tool for pushing out an unwelcome student, or at least making life troublesome for him and his family.

Will Jordan spend the rest of his school career editing his work to avoid run-ins with authority? Or has he learned that he can get out of schoolwork by freaking out teachers?

Which would be worse?

Posted by Paul, Newburgh, NY on November 15, 2008:

"Give the teacher a break, but the administration has a responsibility to investigate and used better judgement. That's why they get paid the big bucks."

I think the point is that those administrators who exercise such poor judgment are taking the "big bucks" under false pretenses. And should be treated to a major pay cut.

Posted by Herself, Los Angeles on November 15, 2008:

Geez. I thought the poor kid's title of the drawing was really clever. I mean, a vampire would "kill for blood."

I really hope that his creativity is not thwarted by this insanity.

On a personal note, I have many public school teacher friends who work really hard to get around this ZT BS to actually provide a decent education, and it is definitely a challenge these days.

Posted by Mike from Dallas on November 16, 2008:

I see that Don in Nawlins has already summed up my initial reaction to the story. Ms Pevey seems awfully "knowledgeable" about gang symbols, more so than even the police. And she's one of the ranks of the Educators of Our Children. No, it's not just her, or even just a few others.

In literature, the joke is that the best trick played by the Devil is to convince the world he really doesn't exist. The best trick played by the educational system is to convince the communities that it doesn't happen in THEIR territories. It's always a "rare mistake", a bizarre one-time occurrence", never a common attitude backed up by history of mankind through the ages. (How many forms of government and laws have been set up to protect us from OURSELVES, from the necessity of thinking?)

The pervasive hope that the pendulum will swing back is nothing more than wishful thinking. I'm 57 years old, and I'm still seeing the same kind of thinking that was prevalent in schools back in the 1950's. Public schools, in my lifetime, have never been about education, but about molding students into accepted mindset of the masses. Only recently has it been given a name, Zero Tolerance, but it's always been around. Yes, beat out, badger, penalize, abuse, and humiliate any shred of independent thinking, and then award diplomas to the good zombies who remain.

Before anyone thinks I'm ranting about one school district in one city, I've attended public schools in MI, FL, VA, TN, RI, & GA. I've gone through the experience with my kids in NY, CA & TX. It's universal and it's been around for eons. In religion, it's called Dogma.

Posted by Anna, Cape Town, South Africa on November 17, 2008:

Wow, I was expecting a rather violent picture...the vampire mask doesn't even have sharp teeth! And at least the wording isn't like cell phone text messaging. Well done to the art teacher for assisting expression. Not many persons are these days. And Mike's comments made me laugh out load...Dogma, I like that!! "This is true!"

Posted by Kris - Belgium on November 17, 2008:

Whenever I read these articles about ZT, I have the same reaction :
1/ This can't be true
2/ Yeah, this must be a joke
3/ OMG... this really happened and still happens.

Maybe it's because I had interesting teachers who stimulated creativity, but I really don't see anything wrong with that boy's picture. It's scary to people with the brain of a 10 year old (this includes Pevey), but drawing something scary was the assignment, right? Just imagine all the great painters of the last 100 years, and imagine what ZT would do to them if they were 10 year old boys!

That Van Gogh boy must be a drug dealer... with his strange colored flowers. Da Vinci drawed body parts, so he must be a mass murderer.

Posted by Kim, Newark De. on November 17, 2008:

Having been married to a public school teacher for 30+ years if the teacher had not reported it and something happened they would have been labeled negligent. The checks worked, the parents were informed and the student was checked out by a professional.If it had turned out the other way and the student had been found to be in need of further counseling he would have gotten it.

Posted by Dustin in Lawrence on November 17, 2008:

It seems to me like people are being kinda harsh in this instance. Don't get me wrong, I love a chance to bash ZT, I think it is an incredibly stupid policy, and some of the stories I read are just incredible.

In this case, though, I could see how that picture could freak some people out. Some people use art as a release valve, and "I kill for blood" seems a valid reason to raise a flag.

I don't really see how a psychological evaluation would necessarily equate to a trauma for the boy. What was involved in the eval? Was it just him talking to someone?

Also, I think there is a big difference, Randy, between your assertion that the police understood that the drawing didn't "mean anything", versus the police not being sure it meant anything. Sounded to me like the police were not sure one way or the other.

In this day and age, where you have such a high number of school shootings, and violence is so common, a little bit of caution is not a bad thing. I was sitting there expecting during the whole story that you would bust out with "and then the child was suspended for life for the terrible drawing", in which case I would have been right there in my anger too. But just taking a precautionary step and having the boy talk to a psychologist doesn't seem so bad to me.

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Um, Dustin? He was suspended. "Can't come back to school until he sees a psychologist" is suspension, pure and simple. I can see concern if this happened at, say, Easter. But no, it was Halloween, and the assignment was to draw something "scary". He was under the direction of an art teacher, not a mass murderer. -rc

Posted by Frank, Henderson Nevada on November 17, 2008:

I had one son pulled into the principal's office for doodling on his notebook. I was told that the drawings constituted a gang affiliation. I looked at the drawing and asked my boy what exactly was he drawing? He explained he was drawing nothing more the letter "S" over and over. The drawing looked like a maze and nothing more.

The principal was hell bent on pushing the gang issue. I told him that I didn't see what he claimed to see. I also told him that if necessary I would bring my attorney into the discussion. He threatened to have my son expelled and I made good on my promise! My attorney sent the school district a letter telling them that if the issue wasn't dropped, I was fully prepared to sue!

Since then, I have kept an attorney on retainer for this very reason. In my opinion, the innocent are punished and the guilty are ignored! Zero Tolerance.....what a joke!

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It's pathetic that a parent thinks he needs an attorney on retainer just because his kid is in a public school. But you know what? I don't suggest any changes. And that's a sad statement indeed. -rc

Posted by Dustin in Lawrence on November 17, 2008:

Look, I'm not saying that it was the best way to handle it, and I can see the arguments against the action that they took. But to get so upset, railing about the awful trauma to the poor kid, who will now become a mindless lump without creativity? I just don't see it.

According to the original article, he was "suspended" for a couple of hours. He didn't even miss a full day.

It seems to me like maybe everyone was being a little too cautious, and it could have been handled better. However, I would also say that this is actually an example of at least a little common sense prevailing.

By strict zero tolerance rules, I would have expected the kid to have been fully suspended, for some specified period of time, regardless of psychological evaluation. Instead, the boy was back in school the following afternoon.