Everyone does it. Stick gum to the underside of desks. Write “Jeff was here” on a bathroom stall or call someone a name, hoping the now-degraded person walks in to the bathroom and sees it. But this is not the case with a 12-year-old girl in Forest Hills, New York. This girl, Alexa Gonzalez, had written, “I love my friends Abby and Faith, Lex was here 2/1/10″ on a classroom desk with a green marker. What was the punishment? Two police officers handcuffing the girl and escorting her out of the school in front of all her teachers and classmates, across the street to a police precinct. One would expect maybe a conference with her parents or with just her teacher.

The girl is no longer facing a suspension but people are still concerned that the policies of zero tolerance for some schools may be too harsh. One of the first cases referring to this zero tolerance issue was in 2007 when a 13-year-old girl was handcuffed and arrested for writing “okay” on her desk. She wasn’t the only one; several other students were also handcuffed and arrested for placing stickers on the wall of the classroom. Many advocacy groups are voicing their outrage at this and are pushing for schools to roll back these policies.

This also brings up notable concern here at home about whether or not, over the past few years here at Grand Blanc High, our own policies have started to become zero tolerant. Our own cell phone rules have jumped, the first offense being a warning from an administrator to an automatic ISS. Clothing rules – girls have been hit the hardest with the skirt/finger rule, attendance/tardiness becoming harsher with the new passing times and the hall sweeps , 18-year-old adults no longer to be able to sign themselves out, come on they’re adults! We find rules around GBHS becoming stricter and the only thought I have is: Will it ever stop? Will the rules here continue on becoming stricter and stricter? Where do you draw the line? No, seriously. Where do you draw the line?