Forgot all about that, sorry...
Thanks for the courtesy of an FUQ, and for realizing its importance.
1. When dealing with children that young, barring dangerous behavior, from which the
other children need to be protected, expulsion accomplishes nothing.
2. For children that young, not knowing that what they did was wrong
IS an excuse. They are still at the age where we are teaching them to distinguish between right and wrong. Punishment of some kind is still appropriate, but the focus should be on teaching.
3. For children that young, motivation is a HUGE consideration when determining how to respond to such egregious rules violations. He had the right underlying motivation: to stop drug abuse. He just went about it in all the wrong way. Again, teach him.
4. "Zero tolerance" policies ignore all of the above.
5. So-called "zero tolerance" policies have nothing to do with being intolerant of certain misbehaviors. They are solely about maximizing punishment while minimizing lawsuits, because administrators can say, "My hands were tied..." True zero tolerance means the behavior will never be overlooked, however, professionals, in whom we have invested a lot of education and trust, should once again be trusted with making disciplinary decisions that are unique to each single case. True justice will never be fair. We should quit trying to make it so, and just go for justice.
