Nation of Pansies
May. 15th, 2003 11:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sinanjuSo ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
snippy and I were at Twoson's middle school today for a meeting with one of his teachers. The walls of the room where we met were covered with posters and flyers and the like. One of them caught my eye. It read:
Violence is any mean word, look, sign or gesture that hurts another person's feelings, body or things.
This was followed by a statement that the school had a zero tolerance policy regarding violence.
So... A mean word is "violence." A hostile look is "violence." A sign or gesture is "violence." Or it can be, if it hurts the feelings of another in the self-appointed victim's opinion. That's crap. Violence is violence. Threats of violence are violence.
Hostile words, insults, strongly-worded opinions (however ill considered) are not violence, and I find it insulting and demeaning to the students to pretend otherwise. I also find it destructive to a free society when people are being taught this kind of drivel, being brainwashed to believe that everyone has a right not to have his feelings hurt, especially when these moronic "zero tolerance" policies are being used a club to enforce such fantasies. Remember, a zero tolerance policy means that if Child A calls Child B "a festering boil on the ass of mankind" he can be (and if the policy is taken seriously, will be) treated exactly the same as he would be if he attacked Child B physically and beat him senseless. And, of course, exctlyt the same way Child B would be treated if he fought back in self-defense.
Gaaah. The inmates are running the schools.
snippy and I were at Twoson's middle school today for a meeting with one of his teachers. The walls of the room where we met were covered with posters and flyers and the like. One of them caught my eye. It read:Violence is any mean word, look, sign or gesture that hurts another person's feelings, body or things.
This was followed by a statement that the school had a zero tolerance policy regarding violence.
So... A mean word is "violence." A hostile look is "violence." A sign or gesture is "violence." Or it can be, if it hurts the feelings of another in the self-appointed victim's opinion. That's crap. Violence is violence. Threats of violence are violence.
Hostile words, insults, strongly-worded opinions (however ill considered) are not violence, and I find it insulting and demeaning to the students to pretend otherwise. I also find it destructive to a free society when people are being taught this kind of drivel, being brainwashed to believe that everyone has a right not to have his feelings hurt, especially when these moronic "zero tolerance" policies are being used a club to enforce such fantasies. Remember, a zero tolerance policy means that if Child A calls Child B "a festering boil on the ass of mankind" he can be (and if the policy is taken seriously, will be) treated exactly the same as he would be if he attacked Child B physically and beat him senseless. And, of course, exctlyt the same way Child B would be treated if he fought back in self-defense.
Gaaah. The inmates are running the schools.