A New Zero Tolerance Low: Sixth Grader Threatened With Expulsion For Possibly Saving Classmate's Life

When I've complained about zero tolerance policies in the past, I've thought they could get no worse.

Most people would think 6th grader Adrionna Harris was heroic
for taking a razor blade away from a fellow student who
was harming himself. Her school, however, decided her actions
were criminal and tried to expel her, that is until the
media backlash set in.  

I was wrong.

According to television station WAVY, Adrionna Harris was suspended and threatened with expulsion for taking away a razor blade from a kid who was cutting himself, and immediately throwing the razer blade away.

Since she held the razor for an instant, in the stupid, ignorant dumb, shameful eyes of the Bayside Middle School in Virginia Beach  and their zero tolerance bullshit, she had a weapon in her hand. Time to get rid of her.

They suspended her for 10 days and were going to expel her permanently.

Of course, faced with an ENORMOUS backlash in social media after the WAVY report came out, the school is quickly backing down, and allowed Arionna to return to school Friday. But it's just a PR move. I'm betting Arionna's expulsion would have stuck had the media not gotten its hands on this news.

Almost all of the other zero tolerance overreaches I've complained about in the past involved students who actually didn't do things perfectly and might have actually deserved a minor punishment, like a lecture or even a half hour detention after school.

But here, Adrionna did everything right and was actually heroic.  She found a kid cutting himself with a razor. Really, the classmate was in immediate danger. Since nobody else was around at that moment, Adrionna had to think quickly on her feet.

She did and her parents are justifiably proud of her behavior. As would any parent or school. Except for the stupid people at Bayside Middle School, apparently.

To summarize Adrionna's actions:

1. She recognized a serious problem.
2. She took immediate action by taking the razor away.
3. She got rid of the razor immediately so it would not pose a continued danger
4. She quickly told an (allegedly) responsible adult what was going on, so everyone would be protected.

The only mistake Adrionna made wouldn't have been a mistake in a normal setting. Her "error" (read honesty)  was telling school administrators what happened. They would otherwise have never known she had that razor for a split second unless she'd told them.

Schools are supposed to places of learning. Here are the horrible lessons Bayside Middle School seems to be determined to teach students:

1. If you see somebody who needs help. Do nothing. It only causes trouble.
2. If you think somebody else could help a person in need, again, don't say anything. It's not worth the bother.
3. Rules are to be followed, even if it makes no sense to do so. For instance, if you're driving, we all know we should stay in our travel lane all the time. However, if there is a kid playing in the lane we're in, common sense is to swerve around the child if we can't stop. 
But the rules say we can't get out of our lane while driving so it's better just to run over the kid. But don't stop to help the kid once you've run him over. As I said that would only cause trouble. 
4. Lie to adults or at least withhold information from them to ensure you don't get in trouble. 
5. If people get wind of you following the rules no matter what and that you didn't help somebody in need, and these people criticize you, backtrack and pretend to be sorry or pretend to help, but only because that's good PR.  

I'm glad to report that these hideous, moronic lessons the school is trying to teach Adrionna are lost on her. The girl seems to be a bright, compassionate young woman.

A WAVY reporter asked Adrionna what she'd do if faced with the same situation.  She replied, "Even if I got in trouble, it' didn't matter because I was helping him...I would do it again even if I got suspended, yes."

But imagine the chilling effect this whole thing has on other students who might be faced with a dilemna on how or whether to help.

By the way, what about the boy who was cutting himself?  He needs help. But he was holding on to the razor, too. So instead of getting the kid counseling and medical help, I imagine the school will work really hard to get the boy in jail instead. That'll teach him!

School administrators said their hands were tied. The strict zero tolerance policy came down from the School Board, so the principal and others had no flexibility to consider the reality of Adrionna's situation without holding an expulsion hearing.

Yep, there we go again. Obey the rules even if it this case they cause much more harm than good.

A lot of people commenting on the WAVY article on their Web site want heads to roll at the school. Maybe they should hire people that have at least a hint of common sense.

But I bet that won't happen. They'll just let the bad PR wave wash past them, and go on with being stupid.

I hope most other schools aren't like Bayside. If any other school administrators act this moronically in any other school district, I fear for our nation's future.

School Says Kids Who Cry Out For Help Should Just Shut Up Already

Hey kids, if you have a big problem and you can't get help at home and need a trusted adult  to help you out,  do not ask a teacher.

The teacher might be willing to help, but the school will probably expel you. And call the cops on you. So just suck it up and suffer in silence.

That's the hideous lesson a fifth grader in Virginia seems to have learned after he brought pot to school to take it away from his father because he was worried about dad's pot smoking habit.

It's those stupid zero tolerance rules again, which is the comfort zone of those few school administrators who can't think on their feet.

While most school teachers and administrators  seem to have no problem managing to mete out discipline and education in sensible doses, a few schools just don't get it.

And now I've got another example in this poor Virginia fifth grader.  There've been plenty of others, some of which I've written about   HERE,  HERE and HERE

The Virginia Pilot, in an editorial lambasting the school district that is torturing the fifh grader through their "rules," quotes some administrators who say they can't tailor their draconian rules to fit the situation. One size fits all, folks! Even if means killing a fly with a nuclear bomb.

Writes Kerry Dougherty in the Virginia Pilot column:

"There's really no wiggle room," Bethannne Bradshaw, Suffolk's schools public information officer, told me Wednesday.

Oh really, Bethanne? You can't tailor the consequences of the kid bringing the pot to school to the circumstances of the incident? You, or maybe more accurately the administrators at the school, can't think and just have to follow some sort of rote recipe? How the hell did YOU all get through school with such a mentaliity?

The unbelievable thing about cases like this one is the amazing fact that these school administrators have a fundamental misunderstanding of zero tolerance laws.

On their face, zero tolerance rules make sense. The rules send a strong message that bringing drugs or weapons to schools is strictly forbidden.

Even strong advocates of zero tolerance are appalled by this kind of case, since the ridiculousness of these punishments undermine the concept of zero tolerance.

According to USA Today, zero tolerance rules mean there are consequences for any instance of bringing drugs or weapons to school. But it doesn't necessarily mean automatic expulsion. That means the punishment fits the crime. The punishment can range from saying "don't do that again" to expulsion, depending upon the severity of the offense.

According to USA Today:

"I'm terribly embarrassed when I read about some of these cases," says Sandra Feldman, president of the American Federation of Teachers, the nation's second largest teachers union, which has pushed hard for zero-tolerance policies. "These are examples of adults not exercising proper responsibility. I'm always in favor of just plain common sense."

By the way, the USA Today article I reference came out  in 1999. The need for flexibility within the confines of zero tolerance rules has been the subject of educational journals for two decades now. And some schools STILL don't get it?   What's going on?

The Virginia Pilot points out the school district is now the subject of a lot of embarassing, derisive news coverage of their handling of the poor kids.

"We were hearing from people telling us we were idiots. It's been disruptive," Bradshaw said, according to the Virginia Pilot.

Oh, you poor thing Bethanne. Victimized because people are calling idiots idiots

The bad publicity is a good thing. For a few school districts, not the many smart ones, but the dumb ones like this one in Virginia, the only thing that has a chance of making them use common sense for once is the toxic pain of bad publicity.