Second Amendment Foundation Says Spokane's 'Zero Tolerance Equals Zero Common Sense'

1/29/2004

From: Alan Gottlieb of the Second Amendment Foundation, 425-454-7012

BELLEVUE, Wash., Jan. 29 -- The Spokane School District's "zero tolerance policy" on weapons that left three boys suspended for bringing tiny 2-inch-long "action figure toy guns" to school reflects zero common sense on the part of school administrators, the Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) said today.

SAF founder Alan Gottlieb said the school district, and especially Bemiss Elementary Principal Lorna Spear, "should be kept after school for this foolishness."

"I get the feeling that when Spear was in school, she skipped class the day they covered the lesson on common sense," Gottlieb stated. "Zero tolerance policies are excuses that allow bureaucrats to escape making reasonable decisions on their own.

"It doesn't take any brains at all for a rational adult to determine that a 2-inch-long toy gun is not a threat to anyone," he continued. "Then, again, writing an inflexible zero tolerance policy evidently doesn't take any brains, either.

"This incident and similar ones that have happened at other schools suggests that the people who come up with these rigid policies never matured much beyond kindergarten," Gottlieb suggested.

"What kind of lesson does this teach an 8-year-old boy," Gottlieb questioned. "Are we telling these youngsters that it is better to be intolerant than enlightened? In their heavy-handed effort to protect children, Spokane school officials have instituted a policy that destroys the essence of childhood, a precious time of life in which youngsters are supposed to learn good behavior from adults who exercise good judgment.

"Instead of an education, these kids got the inquisition," he concluded. "Principal Spear and Spokane school administrators need to stand in the corner until they grow up."

The Second Amendment Foundation is the nation's oldest and largest tax-exempt education, research, publishing and legal action group focusing on the Constitutional right and heritage to privately own and possess firearms. Founded in 1974, The Foundation has grown to more than 600,000 members and supporters and conducts many programs designed to better inform the public about the consequences of gun control. SAF has previously funded successful firearms-related suits against the cities of Los Angeles; New Haven, CT; and San Francisco on behalf of American gun owners, a lawsuit against the cities suing gun makers & an amicus brief & fund for the Emerson case holding the Second Amendment as an individual right.