CHOKING ON ZERO TOLERANCE: Little Girl Suspended for 30 Days Because She Lent Her Inhaler to a Gasping Classmate:
The school district is probably right that [student Indiyah Rush] shouldn’t have shared her inhaler, but who can blame her for wanting to help? That said, there’s an easy solution available to the school: just tell Rush not to do it again. That’s it. Not every mistake requires a punishment. Sometimes, it’s sufficient to correct inappropriate behavior without ruining a child’s entire school year.
Unfortunately, Schrade’s default course of action is to treat acts of kindness as attempted drug smuggling.
As Glenn would say, Tar. Feathers.
For a flashback to how long “zero tolerance” policies have been doing lots of damage to students with asthma who carry inhalers, check out this 2002 article by the late Cathy Seipp, titled, appropriately enough, “Asthma Attack.”