THIS IS PROGRESS?A 10-year-old boy’s pencil sharpener fell apart, and he kept the tiny blade that fell out so that he could continue sharpening his pencil. A teacher at Hilton Head Island International Baccalaureate Elementary School saw the blade and reported him to administrators; a vice principal called the sheriff to report the “crime.” The responding deputy declared there was “no criminal intent” and refused to file charges, noting the boy is “a very good student who has not been in any previous trouble.” But the school suspended the unnamed fourth-grader, which was “warranted” based on the boy’s “inappropriate behavior in the classroom” for possessing the blade, said principal Jill McAden. A school spokesman said the school was stuck in the “precarious position” between the district’s zero tolerance weapons policy and common sense, but later noted they did away with zero tolerance policy in favor of a “broader, more nuanced approach” to discipline. (Hilton Head Island Packet) … Maybe they can call it “no tolerance” to properly characterize the difference.Source: www.thisistrue.comZERO TOLERANCE, UTAH DIVISIONRyan Turner, 30, lives next to a city-owned lot in South Salt Lake, Utah. City workers left a trap out for a skunk, which caught it on a Saturday night. The next morning, Turner came out of his house and noticed the skunk suffering in the morning sun, so he moved the trap into the shade. “It’s just a matter of that’s the humane thing to do,” Turner said. “Leaving an animal to die in a metal trap over the weekend isn’t humane.” But a police officer scoffed at that explanation, and Turner has received a summons charging him with criminal trespass. He faces a $652 fine. Still, Turner said, “I would rather be in the situation I’m in now than not do anything.” (Salt Lake Tribune) … The ultimate moral defense to zero tolerance.Source: www.thisistrue.com
