No, you read that right: 8-year-old suspended for 3 days for sniffing his own shirt. Principal accused him of "huffing" because the shirt was marked by a "Sharpie" marker.
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My mistake--my first time actually attempting to vote on this site, and (like a true newbie) I didn't read the instructions first. I was actually trying to vote *against* this story.
I read the linked article, and in all honesty it sounds to me like the school acted appropriately. The "Zero Tolerance" approach would be, "We saw him sniff his shirt, and there was magic marker somewhere on it, so our drug policy requires us to suspend him." What they actually did, at least according to the principal, was closer to "We saw him continuing to sniff the magic marker on his shirt, even after being told repeatedly to stop doing so. Since magic marker volatiles are in fact dangerous chemicals, and since he was refusing to follow legitimate orders to stop, we suspended him."
My only objection, honestly, is the reduction of the suspension from 3 days to 1. If the original suspension was justified, then there's no excuse for reducing it; if it wasn't, then there's no excuse for leaving it as a one-day suspension. The school should've either apologized or stuck by its proverbial guns.
But "Zero Tolerance"? That's not what I see operating in this case.
Sincerely,
Mickey.
The story makes it clear that the main reason for his suspension was for continuing to sniff his shirt after being told to stop.
I have to agree that this is not an example of zero tolerance. As a recently retired school teacher, believe me, ZT is alive and well in most public school administrations, but this seems to be more an example of an exasperated administrator over-reacting by giving too severe a punishment and not taking time to determine what was really going on. Less than intelligent maybe, but not ZT.
over-reacting is a mere understatement.If the markers are so dangerous then how did the child get access to a sharpie marker at school in the first place.