ZERO TOLERANCE = ZERO THINKING??

As you may have noticed by now, the bullying epidemic is something that I have strong opinions of.  Here's my latest rant...

Public Schools have a Zero Tolerance policy regarding fighting.  This means that when there is a physical altercation in a public school, both parties are given the same punishment, regardless of ANY extenuating circumstances.  I'm sure that the policy sounded good to the legal departments of our nation's public schools.  Having a flat, one-size-fits-all policy means less chance of having to defend a lawsuit by a parent saying that their child was given a different punishment for the same offense.  This also makes it easy for a school principal to say "I'm sorry ma'am/sir, that is our policy, and I'm not allowed to deviate from it".  It gives the school admin an easy out, and takes all thinking out of the situation.  How do I know this?  I've watched these scenarios play out over and over during teaching experience.  I've sat in on countless parent-teacher-admin conferences, and seen the pain in parents' faces as they try an advocate for their child who is being bullied at school.  I've listened to the responses by fellow teachers and admins, and even remember feeling powerless to help these kids. 

The problem, as I'm sure you can guess, is that situations in life are not black & white.  The Zero Tolerance policy tries to make it that way.  There is absolutely no allowance for self-defense.  If you defend yourself, you get expelled.  Period.  If you tried to defend yourself, you were wrong for not "running away" or going to tell a teacher.  However, this doesn't account for being cornered, such as in a school restroom (where many fights take place).  So, if this is the message we are sending to our children, then what do we expect them to do when they are physically bullied by another student?  If our children fear defending themselves, they empower those who would do them harm for their own amusement. 

Now, I'm not advocating telling students to perform eye gouges, fish hooks, and haymaker punches to get out of a situation.  There are several less harming techniques that can be used to get out of a situation and protect yourself.  We teach these as part of our martial arts curriculum at CFMA.  I am in favor of allowing a school administrator to use some good judgement to determine if there was a need for self-defense.  However, until our lawmakers and state school admins recognize that this has to be changed, each parent has to make a decision of what to tell their child.  Their are risks/rewards to be considered. As for me, I'm going to echo the words of my father who said "Son, don't fight if you don't have to, but if you are cornered and have to fight and then get in trouble, I'll support you".