POV: Dan, Dakota, and Morality

[Steve]

Karen <kchuplis at ...> wrote:

> Huh. I didn't read it that way at all. Mostly because 
> we are talking about 2 kids (1 nearly adult) who are 
> making decisions, along with their parents. I just 
> can't equate that to child pornography. I thought Steve 
> made a good point that people tend to want to raze an  
> entire forest because of the bad trees mixed in. To me 
> his point was in trying to get the bad guys, people go 
> into overkill mode and see  *everything* as a threat or 
>an example of pornography.
>

bboyminn:

Yes, I think you are at the heart of the matter now. What 
I object to is the blind hyper-rationalized 'all or nothing' 
approach to problem solving in many aspects of our lives. 
The most rediculous and hyper-rationalized (should be read 
as 'irrational') aspect in 'zero tolerance'.

To me 'Zero Tolerance Policies' mean zero brain, zero effort, 
zero responsibility, zero common sense.

Examples:

Girl-1 has a severe asthma attack just as grade/elementary 
school is about to begin. Another girl (girl-2) just 
arriving on the playground lets girl-1 who is 
in extreme distress use her own asthma inhaler, and given 
the extreme nature of the attack, probably save girl-1's 
life. As a reward, girl-2 was expelled from school for 
violating the school's 'zero brain... no... no... I mean 
'Zero Tolerance Drug Policy'. 

In another instance at a recent Olympics, one female gymnast 
(I believe) had some sinus congestion and a headache. Her 
trainer gave her some 'Tylenol Cold' (as an illustation) 
medicine and wrote it down in his log as 'Tylenol'. The 
girls lost her metal because of the bookkeeping error. If 
the trainer had written 'Tylenol Cold' in the log, it would 
have been OK. There was no impropriety. It wouldn't have 
enhanced her performance since she took if afterwards, and 
it would have been allowed if it had been logged properly. 
Yet, for that small clerical error, she lost what she had 
worked a lifetime for. 

Zero Tolerance = Zero Brains, and more importantly, zero 
effort, zero thought, and therefore the preception of zero
responsibility on the part of administrators.

Again echoing Shaun, we must consider context because it 
does matter. In every case, a clear and reasonable look at 
the context would have cleared up the matter. 

Just a thought.

Steve/bboyminn