I've had it with Zero Tolerance policies in schools. They are the most idiotic garbage ever.

[Danger Mouse]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=105&topic_id=7189263&mesg_id=7189263
    Here it is, in action again. I don't know how many times I've read in the news about some kid getting arrested or suspended or even CHARGED over some inane, harmless shit that nobody would've batted an eye at ten years ago. It's getting absurd.
With No Child Left Behind, children are not taught to think critically, only to take tests. Ridiculous and arbitrary penalties for minor offenses grinds down children and oppresses them and teaches them to fear and hate authority.
Schools are being run like prisons, and we are treating our children like criminals. I said it elsewhere, but I will say it here too. That will come back to haunt us some day.
    What the hell is the point in any of this anyway? Who honestly wants to see a kid arrested or suspended for scribbling on their desk or kissing someone or god forbid, drawing a picture of a gun? Who is actually in SUPPORT of this garbage? Hysterical, fanatical, nanny state whackos who would be more than happy to give up their own freedom in order to be free from fear, but live in fear anyway. They're more than happy to do the same to their children.
I hear people today complaining CONSTANTLY about how kids are nowadays. Bullshit! Why are they the way they are? Families are breaking down...with the weakening of the middle class, families are under strain, forced to work multiple jobs, have less times for kids. In school, children are expected to be robots, and any break with the status quo can land them in deep shit. Kids never know when it's going to be them that's hauled up for some draconian punishment because they pointed a finger at someone and said pow.
We live in an informed age, but our society is backsliding and science is under assault by idiotic fundies trying to force schools to tout their narrow views. Our country is in the toilet, and so is the environment, and who's going to be the ones to suffer for it? Our kids.
    On top of this garbage, we have 'Zero Tolerance,' an idiotic system for idiots, which is supposedly designed to protect scared idiots from the threat of school shootings. This is moronic thinking to the highest degree: punish any inappropriate behavior as harshly as possible, that'll learn the little bastards! Did they do this kind of garbage when you were a kid? Even when I was a kid?? (I graduated high school in 2000) Of course not! People had some fucking sense back then. Zero tolerance won't do shit to prevent school shootings. You think if some kid wants to shoot up his school, he's going to care about a zero tolerance policy? If that were true, no laws would ever be broken!
    Zero tolerance is useless, and all it does is hurt decent kids who screw up but aren't really hurting anyone. All I know, is if anything like this ever happened to my little sister, I would be right up the school board's ass until they were crying for mommy. We've let our country become a nation of fear, where we pass our hysterical, irrational idiocy onto our children. Kids aren't allowed to be kids anymore...when they are, they risk arrest and being charged as an adult!
It does serve one purpose, however: crushing the spirits of the youth so that they are already cowed by authority before they even reach adulthood.
    God bless America, land of fear and ignorance.