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Zero Tolerance: When It Works

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 10, 2008

For the most part, I'm not a zero-tolerance proponent.

Too often it's a politically-driven, knee-jerk reaction to something in the headlines. Typically, it amounts to zero tolerance for common sense. As a result, it is not usually effective enough to warrant a draconian trade-off.

But sometimes it does work. And the greater good carries the day. Then it would be at odds with common sense to not continue it.

Case in point: the Hillsborough County School Board's "zero tolerance" for bomb-threat hoaxes. Actually, it's more like a year-long expulsion, as opposed to previous - and ineffective suspension policies. But it is a significant ratcheting up of punishment. It was prompted by a record 138 bomb threats in 2000-01. Last year there were 16. So far this year, three.
Bomb threats are not harmless pranks but serious interruptions of the educational process that already has enough challenges. It's more than trashed lesson plans. Some students wander off and skip extra classes. Some stay home the following day out of fear or pretext.

"When you evacuate a school, you take the risk of kids being injured," points out Lewis Brinson, Hillsborough's assistant superintendent for administration. "All kinds of things happen when you're trying to get hundreds and thousands of kids out of school, and nobody knows if it's a false threat or not."

Inevitably, there are complaints from those who have been "expelled" - and from their parents. A hierarchal chain of guilt and peer pressure are typically cited. Also noted: the less-than-ideal academic environment provided by online courses and alternative programs.

Two points:

"Expulsion" is part of the price to be paid for thoughtlessly compromising every other student's learning environment. To those who find the penalty unfair: Too terribly tough. Be glad it's not forever.

Actually, such "expellees" are, of course, learning something. Namely, that what they did was serious and has a commensurately serious consequence. If truly learned, the lesson will last a lifetime.

School Calendar Update

Here's hoping that when the Hillsborough County School Board meets next month, it will vet the recommendation of a committee of parents and educators that the county eliminate religious holidays beginning in 2009-10.

Recall last year's fiasco when classes were held, so to speak, on Good Friday. A majority of students and 40 percent of bus drivers were no-shows. This year Good Friday falls during spring break, so the religious-holiday bullet is dodged.

But next school year will be the test. The school board should heed the committee's advice and then plan accordingly - including acting like responsible, sectarian adults who are staying the nonreligious-holiday course and managing all parties' expectations.

That means, among other things, acknowledging that this is not about religious insensitivity. Or selective intolerance. In truth, it's about treating all religions equally. None will get their own holiday. And, candidly, who is to say - from animists to atheists - who else would have been queuing in that "give-us-our-religious-holiday-too" line?

And here's another suggestion: Rethink Fair Day.

How do you make the case that you - as a school board - are to be taken seriously on such a sensitive, multicultural issue when you annually free up students to opt for dunk tanks, Ferris wheels and corn dogs in lieu of school?

But if you must keep the date then, at least, re-label it. How about "Respecting Everyone's Religion Day." Observe it in your own way. In a church. At a mosque. At a synagogue. At home. At the state fair.

Good Friday? How about Much Better Friday?

It Takes A Village

The scene could have adorned the cover of the old Saturday Evening Post. It was that Norman Rockwellian.

Beaming parents, cherubic kids and compliant pets packed the outdoor plaza of South Tampa's Hyde Park Village. Young ballerinas and music from "The Nutcracker" was the center of attention. There would be a Santa sighting before it was over.

No one talked of (village owner) Wasserman Real Estate Capital scenarios and turbulent times for retail. What Gator game?

The focus was kids and Christmas: a never-more-important constant in a world undergoing unprecedented change.

Birthday Remembrances

Some of you, I know, can empathize. The rest of you - just enjoy it a while longer.

You get to a certain age, and you have more birthdays behind you than in front of you.

And those remaining birthdays come increasingly with fewer birthday cards.

Your parents, who never forgot, are deceased. Same with that favorite aunt or uncle. Your siblings have their own kids - and maybe grandkids - who keep having these rite-of-passage birthdays.

And buddies don't send each other birthday cards; it's not a guy thing.

But your wife and child remember. Which, candidly, is plenty at this point.

You're a year closer to your actuarial denouement. How celebratory do you want to get?

But into the B-Day breach: a birthday e-mail greeting from my health club, as well as a "Happy Birthday, Joseph" greeting at the check-in counter. Then there was that personal birthday telephone call from my dentist. And another e-mail birthday acknowledgement from a friendly political maven.

Of course, this is part of modern marketing. But just the same, thanks Lifestyle Family Fitness; John Redd, DDS; and Bob Buckhorn, South Tampa neighbor. It mattered.

Joe O'Neill is a South Tampa writer who can be contacted at moesez@aol.com or www opinionstogoonline.com.

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