Zero Tolerance at Schools

Zero Tolerance at Schools

By Elton Camp

It began with a federal law about bringing guns to school

That offenders must be expelled was the ironclad rule

Then, unwisely, local officials the policy vastly expanded

For drugs, aggression, and other things, expulsion demanded

The intention behind these regulations may have been good

School officials couldn’t be trusted to enforce as they should

Because the regulations by modern Dracos had been written,

Students, for childish behavior, with expulsion were smitten

A six-year-old, happy at joining the cub scouts, ruined his life

Because he brought to school camping stuff: spoon, fork, knife

Because of his heinous crime, zero tolerance enforced the rule

He got a suspension and spent forty-five days in reform school

A retarded child for “strong-armed robbery” was arrested

He stole two dollars and in adult jail for six weeks rested

Only when a CBS “60 Minutes” crew came to report the case

Were the ridiculous charges then dismissed with greatest haste

What very desperately needs to be done, it seems to me,

Is a zero tolerance policy for school officials’ stupidity