Zero common sense. (Scan).(zero tolerance of guns or illegal drugs on school campuses)(Brief Article)

A policy of "zero tolerance"--a fitting response to young hoodlums toting guns or illegal drugs--has over the last few years become a blanket standard in school districts across the country. Too often, school administrators apply it in ways devoid of reason:

* This year, Jeremy Hix, an honor student and bagpipe player from Holt, Michigan, was kicked out of school for the remainder of his junior year and the first half of his senior year after he wore full Scottish kilt regalia, including the ceremonial knife known as a "sgian dubh," to his junior prom.

* Two days after Jeremy's prom this spring, National Merit Scholar Lindsay Brown, also a trouble-free honor student, was yanked out of her classroom, handcuffed, charged with a felony, and carted off to jail for bringing a "weapon"--a round-pointed table knife--onto school property. The table knife had dropped onto the floor of her car while she was moving her belongings to an apartment near Gulf Coast University, where she was to enroll in an academic scholarship after school ended. Though prosecutors dropped the case against her, she missed graduating with her class and suffered the indignities of time in the slammer.

* A week before Lindsay Brown's misplaced table knife turned up, a fifth-grader ...