Reply #30: Meanwhile, The Only Thing Good About The Zero-Tolerance "Solution" [View All]

[wellst0nev0ter]

Is that it's not worse than the problem

Toy gun backfires on Maple Grove junior
James Walsh, Star Tribune

Published September 20, 2003

. . .A week ago Wednesday, Jake and his friends were hanging out at another boy's house. A friend saw a cap gun and started playing with it. The friend took the cap gun with her when they went to another house. Then Jake drove home. The friend who was playing with the gun said she forgot she'd left it in Jake's car.

The next morning, on Sept. 11, Jake was on his way to a 6 a.m. Bible study group at school and cleaned some trash from his back seat. It was dark and the dome light on his 1987 Toyota doesn't work. He said he never saw the gun. He drove to school and went to class.

Later that day, a school employee saw the end of the toy poking out from the seat cushions in the back of Jake's car. Maple Grove Principal Conn McCartan had Jake removed from class. After some questions about the day before, McCartan asked Jake if he knew the school's weapons policy -- zero tolerance for bringing a weapon or a look-alike to school. Jake said he slapped his forehead, because he remembered his friend playing with the toy.

He was sent home.