'ZERO TOLERANCE' IS AN UNREASONABLE POLICY

Cathy Breese's unwavering commitment to the "zero tolerance" commandment of
the '90s bothers me ["Jackson, others undermine 'zero tolerance,'"
Commentary, Letters, Nov. 28]. She concludes that we must have sets of
rules for our children to live by. I agree. But zero tolerance is not a set
of rules, it is an unreasonable standard that neither she nor most of the
adult population could ever live up to.

Why should we expect our children to be mistake-free while growing up? Are
there any among us who never drank a beer, smoked a cigarette or, God
forbid, even a joint when we were in our teens? That behavior was not
condoned then, and it should not be now.

But my parents and others were wise enough to realize that these acts,
while potentially dangerous, were not the final yardstick of me as a young
person. If you expel a student for this kind of behavior, what do you do
when a student hits a teacher or brings a real gun to school? Do we fire
someone who is late one time, or take away a person's license for one
ticket? No. We have rules that punish repeated bad behavior with
ever-increasing punishment. This is the case in most sane societies.

It's natural for us to want more for our children and for them to be better
than we were. But our current society has asked them to be far better than
even our current leaders, or us. Bill Clinton smoked pot and became the
president of the United States. Not bad. The possible future president of
the United States may have used cocaine.

While their actions were not what we would hope for from our children, it
shows that people can recover from mistakes, if we give them a chance. I
hear many people say children have no respect for adults. I think it's just
the opposite: We have no respect or trust in our children.

They live under constant fear of their lockers being searched, their
licenses being taken away or their lives ruined by expulsion from school -
all for actions that were punishable in our generation by a three-hour
detention or a couple of days' suspension.

It must be hard for a teen-ager to understand why he is being forced to be
perfect, especially by parents who grew up in the '60s or '70s. Is it any
wonder that they feel we are hypocrites?

It must be terrible to be locked in a place all day with security guards
milling about as you try to learn. It was hard enough just going to school
30 years ago with the normal teen-age pressures.

I think "zero tolerance" is a major cause of violence in our schools. There
are no little mistakes anymore, therefore there isn't any way for kids to
vent their anger or frustrations. In addition, the schools are
under-funded, in disrepair and filled with teachers who are underpaid and
overworked.

Many in society believe we should go back to an earlier time and stress the
three R's in schools. They want to see more homework, less extracurricular
activity and longer hours. That's fine, but along with that we need a
reasonable set of rules and punishments.

Most of us love our children a great deal. Lets show that love by giving
them the respect and space they deserve. We need to stay close and pick
them up when they fail, but only after they fail. Let them make their own
mistakes, only then can they grow up to be responsible adults able to deal
with a larger and more complex set of problems.