It was a beautiful, almost Spring-like day two Saturdays ago when I happened to be walking through a neighborhood in West Pensacola for my current campaign for County Commission.
As we approached the woman on the riding lawn mower, she greeted us with a smile and shut down the machine so we could give her our campaign talking points and literature.
She politely listened, and then she looked over to me and said, "I wish you all would do something about that Zero Tolerance against the students!" To which I replied, "We no longer have Zero Tolerance in our policy, and we only now have minimum mandatory penalties for severe infractions like Bomb Threats and bringing a Firearm to school"
"Well," she continued, "You all at the School Board crushed my daughter and it wasn't fair what you did" Prying, I inquired, "What did your daughter do, and what did WE do?"
And here's where the story of a student comes full circle...
"She was a good student, a great student, that never got into trouble, ever. She made one mistake, and it did not hurt anyone, it was not violent, and she was forthright and told the truth!" The mom said. "Even the Principal of the school asked that she not be kicked out for a year--but the School Board Kicked her out of XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX High School anyway!" Why?"
At that very moment, a chill went up my back even though it was warm and sunny. I felt that awkward sensation of the hair on my neck standing up. I knew this story from a few years earlier, because I had voted against the expulsion. The student in question was an honor student with a GPA above 4.0 and no previous referrals. But she made two mistakes. One, she had some sort of a tryst in
