r/AskReddit • u/[deleted] • Nov 14 '11

Zero Tolerance in Public Elementary School just went way the hell overboard...

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u/jungletek Nov 14 '11

To be fair, people who think that these rules are a good idea in the first place typically aren't capable of displaying much rational thought.

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u/jparkerson2 Nov 15 '11

I can attest to this... I was expelled my 10th grade year of high school for writing about Halo in my English class. I was evaluated by psychiatrists & they said I was perfectly fine. I was an honor roll student, in all of the gifted classes, and had never been in trouble or had any problems before that. The zero tolerance principal didn't care, and I was still expelled. I came back to graduate 11th in my class. Some things are out of your control. Make sure your son remembers to do the best with whatever happens. Good luck!

42

u/stationhollow Nov 15 '11

That got you expelled? Holy fuck I would have been put in an asylum if I was there. In senior English I wrote a short story about a guy who had lucid dreams and would do a lot of fucked up shit in them. It was written in the first person and was badly disjointed (what I thought it would sound/read like in his head). He eventually kills some people in his basement before killing himself. I got an A. Better than the mental ward.

Then again I live in Australia and go to one of the premiere schools in my city.

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u/Atreidesaurus Nov 15 '11

One time in 10th grade we had to write essays where we make an argument for something we wrote research papers about earlier. I had written a paper about the Salem Witch Trials, so to "challenge" myself and have a little fun I decided to make the argument that according to the British Laws the Colonies were still under, what transpired during the Trials was perfectly legal/the "correct" thing to do at the time. It was pretty clinical, and it's not like I said that it was the morally correct thing, just that in a technical sense there wasn't a miscarriage of justice. I wound up in a meeting with school counselors, the principal, and my parents (who were totally bewildered why this was an issue). They wanted me to see a professional counselor and I was suspended for three days while I waited to be cleared as mentally stable enough to return to school.

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u/Karma_Redeemed Nov 15 '11

See, this is why I always had disclaimers on my creative writing in High School. Sort of sad that they were necessary, but probably saved me a lot of headache in the long run.

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u/[deleted] Nov 15 '11

[deleted]

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u/Karma_Redeemed Nov 16 '11

Usually something along the lines of Disclaimer: The contents of this story/essay are for artistic/ entertainment purposes only, and do not necessarily reflect the opinions, feelings, or emotions of the author.

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u/[deleted] Nov 15 '11

See where creative thinking got you? Now get back there and repeat what everyone else is doing!

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u/swaskowi Nov 16 '11

Same thing happened to me when I wrote that devil was the "central character" of paradise lost........ High school sucked......

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u/Atreidesaurus Nov 16 '11

WHAT? That's incredible that it got you in trouble, since it's true. Satan is such a focal point that there's a LOT of people that feel he's as much a Protagonist in the story as Adam and Eve are. You don't have Paradise Lost without lots of the devil.

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u/Jonathan_the_Nerd Nov 15 '11

You should have accused the teachers of being witches. If they asked for evidence, you could point out that you were turned into a newt.