In Case Your School Isn't Zero-Intolerant Enough

By now, we're almost numbed to stories like this one, in which an 11-year-old boy who was told by his therapist to draw pictures instead of act up when he was upset ended up being hauled off to the principal's office after drawing some stick figure violence and the phrase "teacher must die." But what gives this Drudge-bait a little extra oomph is that when the school proved to be insufficiently hardass about the incident, the cops came in.

The school was aware that the boy was in treatment, determined he was not a threat, notified his parents and sent him back to class. His mother, "Jane" was shocked when Arvada Police showed up at their home later that night.

She says she told her son to cooperate and tell the truth, but was horrified when they told her they were arresting him and then handcuffed him and hauled him away in a patrol car. His mother says she begged police to let her drive her son to the police department and to let her stay with him through the booking process but they refused.

They put him in a cell, took his mug shot and fingerprinted him. He says he thought he was going to jail and would never be able to go home again. […]

At first school officials did not want to press charges, but changed their mind when police called them later that night. A juvenile assessment report shows he's never been in legal trouble before and is at low risk to reoffend. […]

[H]is parents say it has cost them thousands of dollars so far.

Sometimes I try to re-imagine the routine hijinks of my Carter-Reagan adolescence through the lens of modern-day tolerance and law enforcement…nope, can't do it.

Reason on school zero-tolerance policies here.