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"I&amp;#039;m giving this week&amp;#039;s Lighten-Up-and-Eat-a-Cookie Award to two words that have infected the brains of principals and school boards across America. And I don&amp;#039;t mean the two words &amp;quot;common sense.&amp;quot; I mean zero tolerance. By definition, having &amp;quot;zero tolerance&amp;quot; for something means that you&amp;#039;re forsaking any wiggle room, giving up the ability to use human judgment to discern whether circumstances warrant exceptions or other considerations. Zero tolerance means you&amp;#039;re tossing those other two words \u2013 common sense \u2013 out the window, as evidenced by cases like these: J  Jailing a group of Chicago middle schoolers and charging them with reckless demeanor\u2026for a food fight, as just happened this week! Transferring a Delaware six-year old to an alternative school because he excitedly brought his new Cub Scout all-in-one eating utensil to lunch.  Suspending a Pennsylvania honor student who doodled pictures of her teachers with arrows through their heads. (Another boy was out for drawing a gun. Now how many boys do that?!)  Suspending a Virginia boy for dying his hair blue \u2013 too &amp;quot;disruptive.&amp;quot;&amp;#039;  These are all true cases, my friends! Other reasons your child may find himself or herself out of school:  Bringing an empty shell casing to show-and-tell Tucking an Advil in your backpack for cramps Leaving a knife in your car, from a picnic Bringing the wrong kind of pencil sharpener to class Hugging a friend  ! The original purpose of zero tolerance rules was to just-say-no to guns, drugs, and alcohol on school grounds. Who can argue with that? But when a Cub Scout fork is construed as a &amp;quot;weapon&amp;quot; and touching is banned, something&amp;#039;s seriously awry. As taxpayers we expect the people in charge of our schools to be able to tell a Cub Scout from a serial killer. (Yes, I know there are shades of gray. But there&amp;#039;s also black and white!) We supposedly hire these people because they have judgment and compassion in working with children \u2013 is a little common sense too much to ask? \u2013Paula Spencer, WD &amp;quot;Momfidence&amp;quot; columnist "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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