Bullying at school has recently reentered national news when video surfaced of a mild-mannered victim turned on a bully and beat the snot out of him. But the victim’s glory was short-lived. Because of a no tolerance policy, both students were suspended.

To maintain order of large groups, social interaction is necessarily guided by a blueprint of ideal behavior, but ‘no tolerance’ is not an objective control.

A no tolerance policy inhibits justice by assigning a ‘rigid reaction’ instead of an ‘objective evaluation’ of the specific events related to an incident.

Chet Barber

Vicksburg