RATIONAL INTELLECTUALS?

This letter is in response to the article on zero tolerance in the
"Our Opinions" column of the Times Record News, Feb. 16, 2001. I
agree 100 percent with the assertion that zero tolerance policies
unfairly ignore individual differences among cases and, for lack of a
better analogy, force school administrators to throw the baby out
with the bathwater.

The statement that I personally had a little difficulty swallowing
was your claim that, "No doubt these rational, intellectual, highly
trained individuals can quickly determine the intent of the student
..." After I got up off the floor, being temporary paralyzed with
laughter, I felt compelled to tell your readers what high school in
this town was really like. The second semester of my senior year, two
weeks before I was scheduled to take four AP tests for college
credit, I was suspended from school for three days and faced being
thrown into Denver, WFISD's answer to HBO's "Oz," on the evidence of
two "marijuana seeds" found in my car. A high school administrator,
who will go unnamed, performed some sort of litmus test to determine
if it, in fact, contained THC. He told me, "This will turn red if it
is in fact marijuana." The thing didn't change color, and he quickly
hid it away, saying, "See, I told you. It turned red." The next week
was an uphill legal battle between my family and WFISD, that
triumphantly ended (thanks to the police department) in the
conclusion that my seeds were not marijuana, but rather that of a
common local weed that my sister had included in her plant collection
for sixth grade science. (Zero tolerance for driving siblings to
school, I guess.) The incompetent "rational intellectuals" had to
give me a formal apology. Luckily I had a family that helped me get
legal assistance and my problem was solved, but I'm sure that most
parents in this town would not believe their children over the school
district and would just spank them more or something.

My high school was full of wonderful, bright teachers (especially in
the AP and pre-AP program) whom I will remember with fondness after I
graduate from college summa cum laude. But unless the administration
has changed drastically in the last four years, the "rational,
intellectual, highly trained individuals" in power at, at least one
local high school, don't have sense enough to run an ant farm, let
alone be left in charge of the minds of tomorrow!

Emily Pothast
Wichita Falls