Posted by stephen michigan on April 19, 2009:

I am in highschool and my freshman year they came up with this new rule that anybody that gets caught with a cell phone (or any ELECTRONIC DEVICE) in their pocket or in the open automatically gets suspended. I think this is part of the ZT, but i am not sure. Either way, i got suspended for having a cell phone in class, just because part of it was sticking out of my pocket! I do not believe i was treated with the right punishment. A story i heard was of a boy that went to a school with the same rule had a father serving in Iraq, and he rarely was able to speak to his family. This boys father had his son's cell phone number so that he could call him if he had a chance and one day in class the father called his son. The boy stepped out of class to talk to him and was suspended for having a cell phone. The school was aware of his father being in Iraq and the possibility of him calling his son. WTF?

Posted by Ed from Richmondville, NY on April 23, 2009:

Update: The U.S. Supremes are hearing arguments this week (4/22/09) on the girl strip searched for Rx. Ibprophen. I hope the Supremes recall two things: The "EEEEWwwwww factor"; strip searching any one for an Rx drug, or any drug when they are "in custody"? What is next, body cavity searches for cheat sheets? Would Justice Robers or Ginsburg want their child or grandchild stripped for a pill?

Secondly: these are teachers, not police trained in civil rights. Educators "should" know the difference between police & educators; roles & responsibilities. They squawk loudly if a parent tries to tell them how to run a classroom, now teachers want to do undercover work too?

---

Good points. The New York Times has a report on the testimony. -rc

Posted by matt, australia on May 8, 2009:

HI love your work it saddens me reading these stories to know humans are this bad. I personally hate people because of the things there capable of. The people in your stories are victims of evil uneducated people. If its was my daughter you stripped search your life would be over. I have no time for what i like to call the evil doers.

Keep up the good work maybe my grandkids can live in a world where commonsense is common.

Posted by Beth, Orlando on May 22, 2009:

Just yesterday, Pittsburgh-area school officials recommended that a middle-school student be expelled for bringing an eyebrow shaver to school. They found the shaver in her purse during a random search. They said that their standard disciplinary policy addresses all students equally. They didn't say "with equal display of idiocy."

Posted by Kelly Ann, Delaware on June 25, 2009:

I'm home schooled now, but public school was a nightmare.

In 2nd grade, a boy punched me in the eye while I was sitting at my desk. After he punched me, I put my arms over my face to prevent him from hitting me anymore and I was the one who got in trouble for defending myself. The ZT trend not only punishes kids for the most stupid things, but most of the time punishes the wrong people. The kid told the teacher and principal that I taunted him and told him to hit me, which I didn't. He kept saying things along the lines of "I'm gonna get you. I'm gonna hit you." which I replied with "Leave me alone." In the end, I got most of the blame, the vision in my eye temporarily messed up and a hate for every teacher in school (almost all of them were like my teacher, who LAUGHED at me when I got punched, by the way) and he got off with a slap on the wrist.

Posted by Heather, Cincinnati on June 25, 2009:

When my boy was 7 he told the principal he had a knife in his pocket and was going to 'cut his nuts off' with it. Mind you they went thru a metal detector on the way into school. They arrested him, charged him with a felony, and only then called me to pick him up at at Juvenile, where he was all ready at, before I knew anything was going on. Before I could get him out of that school they had him arrested 3 more times. Oh, and did I mention, he's high functioning autistic, with bipolar and ADHD? This was a special needs school, for only kids on IEP's, like him.

It's major bologna. His new school, he made he 'gun' gesture at staff yesterday, he lost his swimming privledge for the week and got a behavior violation... AND he is (now 10 btw) supposed to be starting back to 'traditional' school in the fall. UGH.

Posted by Erica, Waco TX on June 26, 2009:

I've got one for ya-- My son was in kindergarten when he leaned forward and gave a quick peck of a kiss on the back of the head of another classmate as they stood in line. He was placed into the in-school-suspension room for 3 days for sexual harassment. When asked why he kissed the child (who was also male), my son innocently stated "Because he's my friend."

Posted by Flu-Bird, California on August 15, 2009:

If the school district says it did the right thing for suspending a kids with LEMON DROPS then the whole school district should be suspended instead.

Posted by Christine, Connecticut USA on August 24, 2009:

Connecticut has a relatively new bullying law for schools that all bullying incidents must be reported to the state. According to the legislator who wrote the bill it was not being used.

A relative was being physically injured in Kindergarten including being choked and put in head locks and being kicked in the stomach and punched. The victim knows martial arts but felt bound by the code of ethics to not use it in school to defend himself. The teacher was aware but nothing was being done to punish the bully or stop future attacks from happening, it repeated over and over, in the class and at recess. Finally it escalated to the principal and the parent asked if bully reports had been filed to the state and what was being done about the bully. The parent pushed the envelope, still nothing was done.

The next week the victim was playing at recess with is friend from martial arts class. They were playing around with moves from class, faking moves and sometimes lightly touching to block hits, and were alone (not with anyone else) and laughing. The Assistant Principal saw it and yelled at the kids, then phoned the father threatening to do a bully report on his son saying "that is what you wanted last week, for us to report to the state". This was clearly a power play game for the school staff and not centered at all on student safety.

To boot the 'victim' child has a learning disability anxiety disorder that already affects his ability to trust and communicate with the adult workers at school and to speak up for himself to other students. Incidents when teachers don't help the victim of bullying and when being yelled at for nothing done wrong does not help the child feel he can trust the adults at school.

The parent is now having detailed discussions of which parts of the marital arts moves the boy should use on the bully to make him stop but not hurt him too badly for self-defense acts. The boy is struggling with ethics still due to what the martial arts teacher says in class.

These adults in schools who have charge of kids do not seem able to use good judgement. They look the other way for real incidents yet seem to like to over-punish the things that don't have any real negative consequences (toy guns, squirt guns, typical boy roughhousing when kids are happy, candy, etc.).

I feel this is due to the coward mentality. In other words the adults do wish that all things were good and right (no violence, no bullying, safe environment) but it is hard to confront the real issues when they happen but easier to overreact to stupid non-issues. Cowards have an easier time, for example, making a mountain out of a molehill to complain about it rather than doing the hard thing and really addressing the problem face to face. I see this also at Sunday School classes at church where terrible problem kids and bullies have clueless parents as no one wants to confront the parent as that is too 'uncomfortable'.

Posted by Julia, Northglenn Colorado on August 28, 2009:

My son was introduced to this ZT nonsense yesterday. It was towards the end of one of his classes and the teacher told the students they were allowed to visit or talk with others. My son was standing next to a friend of his - who was sitting down. My son had one hand leaning on the table and another leaning on the back of his friend's chair. When my son's friend stood up, my son lost his balance and started going backwards. When this happened, the chair he was holding onto went with him. His friend didn't notice and went to sit down and fell on his butt. My son's friend got up and punched him in his arm and they were both sent to the principal's office. The two boys talked it through before seeing the principal and my son's friend apologized once he realized that it was indeed an accident. Needless to say - my son got suspended for three days for an ACCIDENT!! It wasn't some malicious act - it was an ACCIDENT!! The other boy involved also got a ticket for assault and has to go to court. I think this Zero Tolerance garbage is WAY out of control. We need to put a stop to the nonsense.