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Posted 5/17/11 by Common Good

Maryland School the Latest To Show ‘Zero Tolerance’ for Discretion

Two 17-year-old lacrosse players were recently suspended from their Maryland high school for running afoul of the school’s “zero tolerance” policy on weapons. One of the students, who had never before been in trouble at the school, was suspended for ten days after a pen knife was found in his lacrosse bag. (He was also handcuffed and arrested by the police for “possession of a deadly weapon.”) The other student was suspended for one day after he was found with a lighter—which the school deems “an explosive device”—during the same search. School officials were not moved by the students’ explanation—which was supported by coaches, players, and parents—that the items were used to fix their lacrosse sticks—and instead insisted they were just following Maryland law.

Designed to give school officials more authority, as Common Good Chair Philip K. Howard explains in Life Without Lawyers, zero tolerance policies have come to symbolize some educators’ inability and others’ unwillingness to take responsibility to do what’s right. On this, the Baltimore Sun asks: “If we consider it a central mission of our schools to teach children not just to memorize facts but also how to think and reason, what kind of message does it send if those in charge employ none of those skills?”