Randy Cassingham's Blog

Posted by Alan in Virginia on June 27, 2009:

I've lived with Zero Tolerance policies for about 10 years now. We have ZT for drug use, sexual harassment/assault, underage drinking, drinking and driving, and a slew of other situations, including intentionally failing a test. In practice these policies are applied with fairness and situational factors considered. No two instances are alike and they are treated according to severity, criminal or behavioral history, and character. Living with these has become second nature and many of you can look at the list and feel that several of the policies mentioned are reasonable. I would agree whole-heartedly. Indeed, who wants to have sexual harassment deemed acceptable or drunk drivers threatening our family on the roadways?

Like the case mentioned above, possessing a prescription drug without medical requirement is illegal. Even possessing expired medication can result in administrative or legal actions. Leftover ibuprofen from a prescription that has run its course is subject to these rules as well. While these rules are primarily designed to keep narcotic drugs from being abused, they are not limited in scope should an official decide to press charges. Still, it doesn't bother me. Mostly I believe it's reasonable.

See, I'm in the military and I volunteered to accept the rules and regulations governing us through the Uniform Code of Military Justice. Children placed in a situation as described here need protection by these school officials, not from them. I would hold all parties involved responsible. The assistant could have refused, as could the nurse. Should the same thing have happened to my daughter, I can't imagine my reaction being any different. Here's to Zero Tolerance for Zero Tolerance. Keep it up, Mr. Cassingham. Someone has to.

Posted by Ken, Virginia Beach, VA on June 27, 2009:

First, this decision by Justice Thomas is the perfect example of why justices should have term limits.

The article by the NY Times are examples of how we got into this ZT horror; a paper that supports this type of child abuse, and a professor that is teaching future teachers this kind of lock-step thinking and somehow reasons that it justifiable.

What a shame.

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Don't jump to conclusions: a paper which reports what someone said isn't necessarily one which "supports" that view. You certainly shouldn't think that everything I report on is something I support! -rc

Posted by Allen, Arizona on June 27, 2009:

ZT is on its face unconstitutional. If you want to stop it in its tracks, then make every person who is responsible for formulating and/or enforcing ZT personally subject to ZT where it concerns their job and personal activities.

Personally, I am tired of all of the bureaucrats, politicians and other rule makers and/or administrators being exempt from the rules they make and/or enforce on the rest of us.

It is time for total accountability!

Posted by Dan Illinois on June 27, 2009:

From Randy's article:

In the first, Judges Gould and Silverman wrote that while they agreed that the rules in the Supreme Court precedent case were not satisfied and that "common sense" shows that the strip search of Savanna was therefore "unreasonable and unconstitutional," they believe that the individuals named in the suit (the vice principal, his assistant, and the school nurse) are entitled to a qualified immunity from liability, essentially because the law wasn't clear enough for them to understand.

So the Supreme Court just set a precedent for "Ignorance of the law IS an excuse"!

Posted by Kim, Japan on June 27, 2009:

Gah, I had to carry ibuprofen when I was in high school because I had DEBILITATING menstrual cramps. I mean, they made me double over in misery, and the only thing that knocked them out was two ibuprofen every four to five hours. (And sometimes, I still hurt after that.) Of course my mother let me carry some medicine on me!

I remember one time I had left my medicine in my locker by accident and during art class I asked to go get it, because I was starting to hurt. The teacher wouldn't let me go. I spent the rest of the class with my head on the table crying because of the pain. I doubt the teacher believed how much I was hurting (for one, it was a male teacher, he had no idea what menstrual cramps are like). The memory is vividly etched in my mind to this day.

When I originally read this story I pictured myself, having horrible, miserable cramps and a terrible period being forced to strip search. What a terrifying experience! I could also see the aftermath -- my parents storming the school, enraged. I bet Savannah's parents were furious!

Now I am a mother myself, although I have a little boy -- he will likely be big, tall, and have terrible growing pains. (He's big for his age now.) If they tried to suspend him, let alone STRIP SEARCH him, for carrying pain meds I have more than a few things to say to the school.

What are they really teaching in schools? They're teaching that humanity is stupid and authority does not deserve respect. And you know what -- with Zero Tolerance, they DON'T! They're not doing a job. They're just sitting on their cans making rote, meaningless responses.

I'm glad people are finally saying, "This is stupid" -- all the way to the top!

I am frightened by society's tendencies today. Someone pointed out this out on your page already, and it scares me: On one hand, we are sheltering children more and more and trying to remove responsibility from them. On the other hand, if they do anything extremely bad, suddenly they are adults and 100% responsible, when yesterday they were pretty much 0% responsible. You can't just flip flop like that. Kids need stability. They need to understand what's going on. The world is a big, confusing place and trying to force it all down their throat at once is bad. By sheltering them, ironically, we're actually making things worse.

Kids should get responsibility in reliable doses and have the possibilities more clearly explained to them, not stripped from them daily by adults who then prove they clearly can't handle the responsibility themselves!

Posted by dennis, san francisco on June 27, 2009:

"On one hand, we are sheltering children more and more and trying to remove responsibility from them. On the other hand, if they do anything extremely bad, suddenly they are adults and 100% responsible, when yesterday they were pretty much 0% responsible."

Kids should be taught by their parents what society fails to teach them -- such things as individual rights, personal dignity, not kowtowing to abusive or dimwitted authority, etc. Savannah should have simply refused to submit to the strip search, and should have refused to sit outside the office for two hours unless the school officials gave her sufficient reason.

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Yeah, she should have, but I probably wouldn't have had the confidence to do all that at 13 either. -rc

Posted by Brian, Canada on June 28, 2009:

I had an asthma attack at school when i was 16 and my inhaler was empty when I needed it most. My teacher didn't hesitate to give me his (our school is a 20 minute drive from any health facility). After I used the inhaler, he begged me not to mention it to anybody, for fear of losing his job, among other ZT problems.

Personally, I think he may have saved my life that day, as he bought me enough time to get to the city before another attack came on.

On another note, I now have a 15 year old daughter. A few months ago I received a call from her school asking me to come in immediately, but they wouldn't tell me why. When her mother and I arrived at the school, we were informed that our daughter was under the influence of ecstacy. She would be given a 3 day suspension and a contact number for a counselor (the same penalty for someone caught with Advil, by the way).

Even under THESE circumstances, if I were told that she had been strip-searched, I would have lost my mind. I do think they should have searched her pockets (which contained 2 more pills), and her backpack. I also believe she should have been under constant supervision until we arrived (she was alone in the nurses office for almost an hour).

This was three days before two 14 year old girls from our end of town died from the same pills, which I believe came from the same person.

With all of the nasty things coming into our kids' schools, I think ZT has a place in some cases, but only if administered by someone that has common sense. Somehow, I doubt we'll ever see ZT and common sense in the same place.

One more quick note - when I stepped out of line at school, I was given the strap on my hand. If they aren't allowed to strap anymore, what makes them think that stripping our kids nude is ok?

Posted by dennis, san francisco on June 28, 2009:

Brian, Canada: "Somehow, I doubt we'll ever see ZT and common sense in the same place."

A reasonable conclusion, since ZT and common sense are by definition mutually exclusive.

Posted by Nancy, Eugene, OR on June 28, 2009:

I'm curious to know what rights a child or minor has to refuse to be strip searched or searched at all.

If a parent instructs their child to refuse and to insist that the parent be called before agreeing to any search and/or before answering questions - does that make the situation a lot worse for the child?

After reading Randy's post on unreasonable searches by police for adults - I ordered a copy of the DVD "BUSTED: The Citizen's Guide to Surviving Police Encounters" from the website and will be showing it to my adult son and his friends. This was extremely helpful to know my rights as an adult, but I don't know enough to advise a teen or minor child.

Posted by Matt Sedan NM on June 29, 2009:

The real problem with all this ZT social engineering mumbo-jumbo is that the product of the public education system is a bunch of functional illiterates. Up to and including PhD level. ("My father past away"; true example.) When a graduate of a secondary school cannot construct a simple English sentence, (nor in most cases can his teacher) but can tell you why it is acceptable for Heather to have two mommies there is an endemic lack of direction to the educational process. Several years ago three of the top four finishers in the National Spelling Bee were home schooled. The national average on SATs (IIRC) is 940 out of 1600. Since the scores are 200-800 on each portion that becomes a REAL score of 500 out of 1200 or 41.6%. That was a FLUNK when I was in school, not an average.

Time has come long past for the localities to take control of their schools and tell state and federal boards of education to take a flying leap at a rolling doughnut. That way when stupid ZT policies are proposed you have a name to put with the brainless face and when egregious stupidity like this ensues, the proper nose to target.

If had a daughter in school today I would instruct her that in such an instance as this just sit quietly and inform school authorities "I will not take off my clothes until my mother arrives, please call her now." If the third repetition of this statement failed to get desired results, start screaming at the top of her voice, "I'm not taking my clothes off for you, I want my mother, NOW!"

And God help anyone who lays a hand on her.