ZERO TOLERANCE DOES NOT SOLVE SOCIETY'S ILLS

Whether looking at bullying, drugs in school, or misbehaviour in general, a
policy of zero tolerance rarely works, but it is an enticing concept.

A zero-tolerance policy confronts activities that society feels need to be
addressed in the strictest manner. If there are bullies in school, they
need to be expelled. Those who even smell of drugs must be removed from
classes, and misbehaving children must be separated from other students.
This may make people feel assured that social issues are being handled and
society's safety is being protected, but a number of recent situations
demonstrate that life is not so black and white - it is really grey. The
hard and fast zero-tolerance rule rarely works.

A recent example of zero tolerance gone amuck is the case of Ottawa student
Christopher Laurin. The 15-year-old boy was suspended from school because a
police dog smelled marijuana on his jacket. There is no doubt that drugs in
school are an important issue, and schools must be given power to ensure
the safety of the student population - but justice must be tempered with
common sense. Suspending a student based on the odour of his or her jacket
trivializes the many legitimate suspensions that schools are required to
give to ensure the safety and well-being of the students.

The fallout from the guilty verdict in the Dawn Marie Wesley bullying trial
in Abbotsford last week has led several pundits to suggest that zero
tolerance and immediate expulsion of all school bullies should be
mandatory. This powerful rhetoric sounds great, but in reality
implementation of such penalties is much more difficult.

Should 12- and 13-year-old students who are perceived as bullies be
immediately banned from school? Would they be allowed to go to other
schools and become bullies there? Would they not be allowed to attend any
school and become bullies in society at the age of 12?

Bullying is an issue with which B.C. schools have been extremely proactive
over the past several years. Schools work with students to help them
function positively in a democratic society. Education, not expulsion, is
almost always the right answer. A policy of zero tolerance does not solve
the problem; it only exacerbates the problem and moves it somewhere else.

These cases are only the latest examples in a wider move towards zero
tolerance. Zero-tolerance polices in American schools have led to students
being expelled for "crimes" such as bringing a nail clipper to school,
having a plastic knife in a lunch bag, and students having Midol and
aspirin in their possession.

Zero tolerance joins other oversimplistic cliches such as "three strikes
and you're out" and "war on drugs" - buzz words grasped at by citizens
seeking magical solutions to complicated problems. Well-meaning panaceas
will never deal with the root causes of anti-social behaviour.

It is true that there are times that expulsions are appropriate in schools
and severe punishments must be administered, but cases must be judged on
their own merits. Fortunately, this is the course local school districts
have taken so far.

Zero tolerance might make people feel more comfortable about their safety,
but unless it is administered with a dose of common sense, the outrageous
injustices it can create are a greater travesty than the problems it hopes
to solve.