Tracy Kurtinitis of the East Valley Tribune on Girl is suspended for inhaling helium:
The only thing that got high was her voice. But taking a puff off a helium-filled balloon while decorating for the Friday night junior high school dance was enough to get Hayley Hoffman, 13, suspended for five days under Gilbert Unified School District’s zero tolerance policy on inhalants.
“They said it was a drug abuse thing,” said Mark Hoffman, the eighth-grade girl’s father. “They acted like she got off easy.”
Her sentence was reduced to one day of outof-school suspension after Greenfield Junior High School principal Jill Bowers re-examined the circumstances. But for Hoffman, his daughter’s suspension was one day too long.
Ms. Bowers should be embarrassed for even suggesting a one day suspension. Zero tolerance, as practiced in most schools, is zero intelligence.
Pamprin isn’t crack. Helium isn’t equivalent to ecstasy. Nail clippers aren’t machettes. Key chains aren’t lethal weapons. Drawings by third-graders have never stabbed anyone.
I fear for the future of any student being “educated” by individuals and systems willing to abandon rational examination of an “offense” in favor of knee-jerk responses and arrogant steadfastness.