We have heard news stories of children being severely punished for simple mistakes in judgement. Due to Zero Tolerance laws children are expelled from schools and blemishes added to their permanent record. Some of these infractions range from; a Kindergartener being permanently labeled a "bully" for "threatening" to kick another student "in the butt" for cutting in front of the lunch-line, and recently a fifth-grade student is suspended for ten days (decision pending but probably expulsion) for bringing a plastic toy gun to school.
My argument against Zero Tolerance is not a desire to lessen the penalty, but to put decisions of such back into the hands of a panel of adults to impose proper dicipline while acknowledging human error should not be judged in stark/simple black and white
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