JONATHAN TURLEY

In two different school district, children have been punished for hugging or holding hands against school rules. In one case, a student was consoling another student who lost a parent. The harsh zero tolerant policies of school district is becoming a national scandal. Whether it is expulsion for an aspirin or a reprimand for a stick figure drawing, educators are enforcing extreme policies like robots without concern for harm to the children. The zero tolerance policies are basically a bureaucratic culture among schools where teachers would prefer not to think or exercise discretion. For a prior column, click here The result is to teach a terrible lesson to children about the use of power and authority. Robotic educators make for robotic citizens who view power as arbitrary and capricious. For the full story, click here The reason these bizarre stories reoccur is that the responsible officials are never disciplined for their blind application of these rules.