Zero Tolerance

There is a story in ROswell , GA this morning. A 14 year old girl, who was an honor student with no prior disciplinary problems was expelled from school due to the zero tolerance policy. Her crime was, she wrote a FICTIONAL story in her PRIVATE journal detailing a teenagers fantasys of killing a teacher and finally carrying them out and being killed by the schools security guard. She used fictional names , dates , and places. The journal was discovered and read by her teacher as she was passing it to a classmate in art class.


OK, i want to know what you guys think. Here is my take. She disrupted class and she broke a rule so punish her for that. However dont expell her for her thoughts. That is policing her free speach, and therefor VERY VERY dangerous. The exact reason given for her expulsion after three hours at a tribunal with very lots of support for her including the Georgia State Poet Laureate(sp) was... "The content of the story is inappropriate"

I wonder what Edgar Allen Poe would have to say about that...

I agree bro. A little warped but kids have great imaginations. Maybe she could see counceling to focus her creative mind on something else

i dont see it as warped or in need of counseling. Hve you ever thought about suicide, or homicide ? sure you have everyone has, did you do it ? did she ?

I think that counceling would be a better choice than expultion. Writing about killing is warped. I have done it but I am warped. I am just trying to think like these idiots. If it was up to me I would have posted it up in the hall way and given the girl an award

i understand your opinion , however i still disagree."writing about killing is warped"

-war books, civil war, ww2,vietnam, etc etc
-as mentioned edgar allen poe (remember tale tell heart)
-shakespear
-even huckleberry fin

can you see how this can be dangerous ? They MAKE her read a tale of two cities (war and romance) then expell her for writing about killing. HYPOCRITICAL in my opinion

she has the right to express her opinion and how she feels. Maybe she does need counseling but she also has a right to privacy. A teacher once read a note out loud in class from a shy boyto a girl, he later killed himself because of that. the teacher was terminated(fired). I agree it was important to know, however he went about it the wrong way. Privacy when it comes to a childs mine is very important. You have to have trust ans sharing thier private thoughts is very dangerous, he might have something to worry about now , maybe from other students even.

Guys you are misunderstanding what I am saying. I don't think anything is wrong with what she did. I am expressing my .o2 as if I were one of the idiots that condemned her. Killing is a little warped but there is nothing wrong with expression of thought and fantasy.

pudgy said:

There is a story in ROswell , GA this morning. A 14 year old girl, who was an honor student with no prior disciplinary problems was expelled from school due to the zero tolerance policy. Her crime was, she wrote a FICTIONAL story in her PRIVATE journal detailing a teenagers fantasys of killing a teacher and finally carrying them out and being killed by the schools security guard. She used fictional names , dates , and places. The journal was discovered and read by her teacher as she was passing it to a classmate in art class.


OK, i want to know what you guys think. Here is my take. She disrupted class and she broke a rule so punish her for that. However dont expell her for her thoughts. That is policing her free speach, and therefor VERY VERY dangerous. The exact reason given for her expulsion after three hours at a tribunal with very lots of support for her including the Georgia State Poet Laureate(sp) was... "The content of the story is inappropriate"

I wonder what Edgar Allen Poe would have to say about that...

Click to expand...

I believe this is dead wrong and there should be absolutely no punishment at all with regard to the contents of the journal. Disciplinary action should only be taken against her as Pudgy said for disrupting the class, period.

In NY, they make all students sign a "Code of Behavior" agreement for the school. It outlines what is acceptable behavior with regard to a plethora of topics, ie: racism, sexist remarks, unacceptable touching, language, etc. This thing is usually 5 pages long and supposedly the student is held accountable for it's contents. Every year I read this and get about half way through and then feel like I need to hire an attorney to defend my kid.

It is time to put a stop to those people who would guide our children like this, I believe it's unacceptable to tell them to how they are allowed to express their thoughts, whether it be writing, drawing, etc. Which is what most of this comes down to.

I do not understand how parents can allow other adults to be the arbitor of their childs' thoughts.
I absolutely refuse to raise my kids this way.

I agree, but she needs some help that's all....

i agree but, lol that means i dont agree


dont misunderstand me viper, rad, and others, because im saying what i think doesnt mean you have to agree or i think your wrong. i opened the topic for discussion thats all...

She should NOT be expelled.
I see everyone's point here very clearly

Well, I'm certain that in this circumstance the schoolboard had to do something lest parents start freaking out over something as insignificant as this.......so, with that said if something HAD to be done she should've received counseling just to appease the TV watchers who would've been certain that she would carry out her evil plans

That said, I'm also of the opinion that she was old enough to understand that there are certain actions for which our society at this point in time has no tolerance. Writing about killing teachers and passing the story around is one of them. I don't think her creative output should be quelled, but I do think that she exercised poor judgement in where she decided to pass the story around for people to see.....

Do I agree that she should've been expelled? No. But I also think that she should have been a bit more conscious of the consequences her actions could and obviously did carry should her story be found by the right person

pudgy said:

That is policing her free speach, and therefor VERY VERY dangerous.

Click to expand...

it's ahppening all over the world some nuts do something and now we(northamerica and westren europe)have given up a lot of right espiecailly you guys in the states we are living in a time of parinoya and i hope this passes soon(not to offend any rebulicans but i hope the frist sing of it's passing is G.W. get kicked out of the white house )

Not sure. I will tell you I live in Colorado where the whole columbine thing took place. It kinda messed up a lot of people here. Not anything to take lightly.

learner202 said:

Not sure. I will tell you I live in Colorado where the whole columbine thing took place. It kinda messed up a lot of people here. Not anything to take lightly.

Click to expand...

yeah maybe so.sometimes people snap and it's the school board's duty to watch for the sings.

By passing it around school and showing it to students it brought the school into it. The school has to take precautions. I just think that by it being passed around in class while class is being taken place, it is the school's property. I wouldn't be all that suprised if she actually wrote it while in class.

Same deal, you write something at work while on the clock, legally it's there's. Same deal, the school should do whatever they feel is necessary.