-Caveat Lector- ------- Forwarded message follows ------- Date sent: Thu, 22 Feb 2001 12:38:57 -0500 (EST) To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Release: Lemon drop drugs and paper guns: Zero-tolerance laws get bizarre From: Libertarian Party Announcements <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Send reply to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- =============================== NEWS FROM THE LIBERTARIAN PARTY 2600 Virginia Avenue, NW, Suite 100 Washington DC 20037 World Wide Web: http://www.LP.org =============================== For release: February 21, 2001 =============================== For additional information: George Getz, Press Secretary Phone: (202) 333-0008 Ext. 222 E-Mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] =============================== Lemon drop drugs and paper guns: Zero-tolerance laws get bizarre WASHINGTON, DC -- Three cheers for the American Bar Association's decision to oppose zero tolerance policies which allow kids to be kicked out of school for possession of "drugs" like lemon drops and Kool-Aid, and for "weapons" like fingers and rubber bands, the Libertarian Party said today. "Finally, some sanity about America's zero tolerance nonsense," said Steve Dasbach, the party's national director. "In a country where students can be expelled for sniffing Kool- Aid, for sharing candy, and for brandishing potato chip canisters, the American Bar Association has interjected a note of common sense." On Monday, the leadership of the ABA voted to recommend an end to zero-tolerance policies in the nation's 14,000 school districts. The 400,000-member lawyer's organization, which held its winter meeting in San Diego, said such policies are a misguided "one-size- fits-all solution to all the problems schools confront" and have "redefined students as criminals." Zero tolerance policies -- many mandated by state law after the tragic school shootings in Columbine, Colorado -- require government- run schools to expel or suspend students for any violation of weapons or drugs regulations. Such policies have led to bizarre results, including: * A 6-year-old in Colorado was suspended for violating the school's anti-drug policy after a teacher saw him share a lemon drop candy with a friend. The school also called an ambulance for the lemon- drop-eating friend. * In New Jersey, a 9-year-old was suspended -- and forced to undergo psychiatric counseling -- for threatening to shoot a classmate with a rubber band. * A 10-year-old in Colorado was expelled because her mother put a small knife in her lunchbox to cut an apple. When the girl realized the knife could violate the school's anti-weapons policy, she turned it over to a teacher. The school then expelled the girl. * Three grammar school students in Colorado were suspended for possessing a weapon -- a water pistol. * A 13-year-old in Arizona, inspired by the movie October Sky, built a rocket -- fueled by three match heads -- out of a Pringles potato chip canister. When he brought the potato chip canister to school he was suspended for a year for having a "weapon." The school also reported him to the police. * In Michigan, a third-grader was suspended for showing his classmates a gun-shaped medallion, slightly larger than a charm for a necklace. He had found the piece of jewelry in a snowbank. "State law requires us to take action even though it was a toy," said a school administrator. * A school in New Jersey suspended two kindergarten students for playing "cops and robbers" on the playground. They had pointed their fingers at each other like guns and shouted, "Bang bang!" * In Maryland, a school suspended a 9-year-old after he drew a picture of a gun on a piece of paper. * In Virginia, eight students were suspended for one week after they were caught sniffing Kool-Aid. They were charged with "possession of contraband" because they were "using Kool-Aid in a way that imitated the use of illegal drugs," school officials said. Given such ridiculous results, zero tolerance policies are clearly ineffective, said Dasbach. "Expelling children for possession of a rubber band, a water pistol, or a finger doesn't keep anyone safe," he said. "Schools don't seem to recognize that there is a difference between a psychotic student with a semi-automatic weapon and a 6-year-old with a rubber band. "And to the degree that these policies force school officials to pay attention to such trivial transgressions while ignoring real potential dangers, students may actually be less safe. That's bad news for parents whose children are trapped in government schools." At their worst, the kind of zero tolerance policies opposed by the American Bar Association send a chilling message to children, said Dasbach. "These policies teach children that justice is inflexible, and doesn't care about circumstances, or fairness, or good sense," he said. "And they teach children that they have no rights -- that they are criminals if they play innocent childhood games, say the wrong thing, or share a lemon drop candy with a friend." -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 iQCVAwUBOpV4hNCSe1KnQG7RAQGklwP/aEY0PUI967fpLqjJvL6ACEqloNTW9uCD UEDznLxJtxoJ8hh/E7GlTpnIzjp20B46MpErJPY7bdaHPUuD3j9HZixHmLUkza8g NNTB1KFBYv+bhznMieDnvBpr322CzHJDdOJXdn6xX8/WGIniboegEG/Zuflpl5CE Y+iTkIwj/ds= =5ED9 -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- The Libertarian Party http://www.lp.org/ 2600 Virginia Ave. NW, Suite 100 voice: 202-333-0008 Washington DC 20037 fax: 202-333-0072 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- For subscription changes, please use the WWW form at: http://www.lp.org/action/email.html Alternatively, you may also send a message to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> with just the word "subscribe" or "unsubscribe" in the subject line. ------- End of forwarded message ------- A<>E<>R Forwarded as information only; no endorsement to be presumed + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is distributed without charge or profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this type of information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + Integrity has no need of rules. -Albert Camus (1913-1960) + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + The only real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes. -Marcel Proust ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The libertarian therefore considers one of his prime educational tasks is to spread the demystification and desanctification of the State among its hapless subjects. His task is to demonstrate repeatedly and in depth that not only the emperor but even the "democratic" State has no clothes; that all governments subsist by exploitive rule over the public; and that such rule is the reverse of objective necessity. He strives to show that the existence of taxation and the State necessarily sets up a class division between the exploiting rulers and the exploited ruled. He seeks to show that the task of the court intellectuals who have always supported the State has ever been to weave mystification in order to induce the public to accept State rule and that these intellectuals obtain, in return, a share in the power and pelf extracted by the rulers from their deluded subjects. [[For a New Liberty: The Libertarian Manifesto, Murray N. Rothbard, Fox & Wilkes, 1973, 1978, p. 25]] <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. 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