i agree she should have been more severely punished but the zero tolerance policy is a load of BS. . . Yes, and i am a teacher. My brother got suspended indeffinatly and was in danger of not graduating because a cop said he was high (he was not high... we walked by a bunch of kids who were getting high, and my brother laughed and said "you guys are stupid, there is a cop watching you"... so everyone split, and my brother walked calmly to school where he was hauled into the office and suspended. the cop and administration was mad because he refused to tell them who was there) . He ended up having to switch schools to a continuation and bust his butt to get his GED before they could suspend him permanantly. anyways there have been MANY other instances with the zero tolerance policy that are ludicrous and downright abuse of power. whats worse is there idea of "justice", my parents were sent a letter BEFORE i started high school saying that i was in danger of being expelled from their high school if i put a toe out of line (and this is because i had a problem with a teacher who wrote me up for tracking mud in her classroom on a RAINY day
).... so here you have it. There are pros and cons to every system and these are deffinatly the cons of teh zero tolerance policy. I dont doubt that it should protect those students still in school, but just like some people get falsly accused and sent to jail... some people get falsly accused and expelled (and what kind of message is this sending to the kids ????)
On a further note: the lack of communication is clearly an issue. what you can do it go onto the district website and get all the important phone numbers from it and start calling EVERYONE. im serious, BUG THE HELL OUT OF them!!!! Call the superintendant if you have to!
Oh, and that was very smart of that teacher to do the "pop quize"
