Zero Tolerance

My daughter is 11. We share many things, but above all we have the same affliction. We are both awesome.

I do occasionally have trouble with her school. I was diagnosed when I was 12, and all throughout my acedemic life there was no clear and consistent answer or treatment for high functioning autism. (There was, but it usually boiled down to hitting me with things.)

Now we have the 'specialist' in the classroom. We have the 'autism school'. Of all of the schools in Fitchburg Massachusetts, one is designated as the 'autism school'. I have no idea how they became the 'autism school'. Perhaps they drew the short straw. I say this because they don't seem to be terribly happy about it.

This year we have had around a dozen phone calls saying "Pick your kid up, she's suspended." She would get suspended for various things. Once she threw shoes at a teacher. Obviously she's not allowed to do that. One time she kicked a kid in the face. That was a two day suspension.

When my wife told me about this one, the first question I asked was "Why did she kick him?" That drove my wife crazy. To her mind there's no reason to ever kick anybody in the face. I came up with two on the spot:

1. The kid was coming at her with a weapon and the kick was both self-defense and amazingly amazing.

2. The kid's face was on fire.

The real reason wasn't nearly as poetic. The kid pissed her off and went and got his face kicked. I explained to my sweet delicate flower that we do not dispense justice that way. We are not Batman.

A couple of months ago, she was suspended for a week. This was a Friday afternoon. We had to pick her up and couldn't bring her back for 5 full days.

Because she was screaming.

That's not what she claimed, that's what the teacher said.

5 days for screaming and only 2 days for kicking a kid in the face? That must have been one ugly kid.

The answer came back "We have a zero tolerance policy."

There it is. Zero Tolerance. I will now explain how 'Zero Tolerance' is a bunch of crap.

Whenever anything happens in society, those in charge have to decide if and when to apply the rule of law, or apply the intent of the law. Perhaps the law should be ignored altogether. This is why a cop generally doesn't ticket you for jaywalking if you're fleeing a building fire. Technically you broke the law, but the cop isn't being a jackass. He's using his JUDGEMENT.

Now if that city had zero tolerance for jaywalking, you'd be screwed.

"But Ian," you say, "Schools have to have zero tolerance for things like drugs and violence" Okay, let's examine that.

You're on your way to school and on the path you spy a ziplock bag with white powder in it. Being the incredibly social-minded person you are, you pocket it. First thing you do is go to the principal's office and hand it to him, explaining that you didn't want anyone else to pick it up, and would he please deal with it as appropriate?

He suspends you for two weeks. You brought drugs into the school, and although your actions were commendable (and you did nothing wrong in his eyes), the school has a ZERO TOLERANCE POLICY.

"But surely the principal would take that into account..." Nope. That would be showing tolerance. It's zero tolerance, baby. Showing tolerance violates the policy.

Zero tolerance is such a cop-out. On the face of it, it demonstrates how seriously the school or workplace takes a certain issue. It sounds good. It feels good. It's the best thing for everybody.

Until it blows up in your face. Until you end up punishing someone for doing nothing wrong in the eyes of society. The only thing a zero tolerance policy achieves is a complete absence of culpability. If you're not ALLOWED to exercise your judgement, you can't possibly get into trouble for making a bad judgement call.

It's the buzzword for those who are too cowardly to make a decision in case it turns out to be wrong. For some reason, being wrong terrifies people. I've made literally thousands of decisions in my life. A good percentage of these were wrong decisions. Does this mean I should stop deciding things? Absolutely not. I am the Arbiter of All Things. It wouldn't look too well if I wussed out.

Against my wife's advice, I vowed to go down to the school on Monday and explain to them that they were wrong, how they were wrong, and how they were going to correct their mistake. I would be civil. I would be polite. I would not kick anybody in the face, but I did reserve the right to want to do that. I would not do that of course. Not unless someone's face was on fire.

Before I got there however, I received a phone call. The assistant principal. She called to apologise. It was her decision to suspend Elise for a week and she admits it was an overreaction. Elise was welcome to come back to school immediately.

Looks like the school showed a little tolerance. Good to hear. It's always a good idea to show some judgement, and it's a bad idea to preach to kids that tolerance is a bad word.

Tolerance is something we should all be striving for. Zero tolerance is an old dog that needs to be put down.