First-grader suspended for turning in toy gun at school

[Psi Baba]

I rechecked last year's taxes when I filed this year. I found out I'd forgotten to report one of my 1099s. If I fix the error on this year's taxes, I'm going to pay a penalty plus interest for not reporting it. Should I keep quiet and hope for the best?

The IRS does give you some time to file an amendment, essentially providing you amnesty for correcting mistakes. The poor 1st grader does not seem to be afforded this same luxury. Don't you think that commending the child for being honest and virtuous would encourage the kind of character and behavior you are advocating?

The logic of ZTPs says that all it takes to stop a crazed high-school student bent on killing his classmates and rampaging down the hall with semi-automatic weapons is for the principal to step out and shout "That's it, you're suspended!" Let me know how that works out.

The only good that might come out of situations like this is that the next generation will see the idiocy, recklessness, and irresponsibility of ZTPs and do away with them entirely.

 

[marplots]

The IRS does give you some time to file an amendment, essentially providing you amnesty for correcting mistakes. The poor 1st grader does not seem to be afforded this same luxury. Don't you think that commending the child for being honest and virtuous would encourage the kind of character and behavior you are advocating?

Part of being honest and virtuous is admitting a mistake in the face of punishment. What you are describing is avoiding punishment. There is nothing particularly noble about that. Plus, you can still commend the child for acting virtuously and impose the penalty. Those things are not mutually exclusive.

The logic of ZTPs says that all it takes to stop a crazed high-school student bent on killing his classmates and rampaging down the hall with semi-automatic weapons is for the principal to step out and shout "That's it, you're suspended!" Let me know how that works out.

I disagree. You seem to be taking the position that there can be no improvement - if something doesn't solve the entirety of a problem, it's not worth doing. This is wrong-headed.

Consider the situation where the school turns a blind eye. Any subsequent incident is certainly going to be blamed on the school for not taking action earlier in the flow chart. And that's what you end up with - some injustice in the face of not being able to predict the future and adopting a position of an over-abundance of caution.

The only good that might come out of situations like this is that the next generation will see the idiocy, recklessness, and irresponsibility of ZTPs and do away with them entirely.

This may happen. Policies come into the sharpest relief after they have been enforced. It would be interesting to see, now that some time has passed, whether the good citizens of that district dropped the policy or whether they deemed this incident not significant enough to do so.

 

[TimCallahan]

Part of being honest and virtuous is admitting a mistake in the face of punishment. What you are describing is avoiding punishment. There is nothing particularly noble about that. Plus, you can still commend the child for acting virtuously and impose the penalty. Those things are not mutually exclusive. . . . mega-snip) . . .

One penalty fits all is just plain stupid. The school authorities acted like dicks. They could have suspended the child for a day, denied him recesses for a week or any of a number of lesser punishments.

If an action offends common sense, odds are it's nonsensical.