Once again, Opinion Journal's Best of the Web comes through with the latest stories in zero-tolerance lunacy. Many of the previous cases have been about hapless students who had "dangerous" objects in their car unawares, but this latest situation takes the cake. Santiago (CA) High School suspended Robert Bollong, who "deliberately" had a knife in his car - one that was part of a pre-packaged roadside emergency kit that his caring mother bought for him:
Drug-sniffing dogs at Santiago High School detected Bollong's asthma inhalers inside his truck parked at school. That's when security opened a bag behind the passenger's seat and found the utility knife. Bollong says the principal warned him "not to bring weapons to school, that someone could get hurt."
"He said that I put it in there intentionally," said Robert Bollong, who was suspended. But Bollong's family went right out and purchased emergency roadside kits from WalMart, Costco & Sam's Club and each carried utility knives just like the one that got Robert suspended.
I'm curious to know if Robert was being searched by drug-sniffing dogs for any particular reason, or if this was just another one of those random drug searches. If so, what gave officials the right to open a first-aid kit? And how dumb do they have to be to not understand why a utility knife might be included with a pre-packaged kit? Are they going to sue Wal-Mart on behalf of the school district now?
I'm so disgusted with these stories. The news that Jake Trembath ultimately is not going to be expelled for the cap gun in his car relieves my disgust a tiny, tiny bit (be sure to read the heart-wrenching comments in my original Jake posting), but I just can't imagine what these students and their families are going through. They must be utterly convinced that their local school boards are composed of nothing but morons. Well, not solely, I suppose, because three people did vote against expelling Jake - but three school board members did vote to expel him over a matter so trivial. I hope voters manage to "expel" those members in the very near future.
Update: And the moronic about zero-tolerance policies stories just keep on coming. The latest one? A 15-year-old asthmatic student in Conroe, Texas pulled out his inhaler to help save his girlfriend's life; also an asthmatic, she used the same prescription inhaler but had left hers at home that day. In the nurse's office, she began having serious trouble breathing, so she gratefully accepted the offer of her boyfriend's medication. She claims he saved her life.
The school district claims he was in violation of their zero-tolerance drug policy, reported him to the campus police, had him arrested, accused him of delivering drugs, suspended him from school for three days, and is threatening expulsion. Oh, and he faces juvenile detention on drug charges as well.
The school district hearing is Friday. This one pisses me off so bad I'm going to complain myself. Here's the school information:
Principal: Dr. Greg Poole
16840 FM 2090
Conroe, TX 77306
(936)231.3330 (832)482.6212 (fax)936.231.7702
And here's the page with the names and email addresses of all the board members. I urge you to email them and let them know what you think of a school that would support a policy which might have resulted in a student's death. The principal claims that sharing an inhaler would have "allegedly" violated state law. Any decent principal would have understood that this situation violated the letter but not the spirit of the law, and damn the law if a student is in serious trouble. Instead, he seems more than willing to let the Good Samaritan suffer the burden.