An appropriate punishment: Trayvon Martin suspended for marijuana?

[Trillo]

I'm not sure about all the Trayvon details, but noted that his suspension for tariness asserted by a former teacher had been upgraded to suspension for marijuana. So, lets consider a hypothetical student suspended or expelled for marijuana.

What is the purpose of such a suspension? Is it to punish the student? Is it to send a message to the other students? Is it to modify the students behavior? Is it to modify other students behaviors? Are there other effects?

If you are fertile citizen thinking of having children, or already a parent or parents, would the idea that "trying to keep kids off marijuana" seem like a valid suspension reason? If the purpose is to make an example of one kid for the benefit of the other kids, to keep them off marijuana, is the price of a suspended students life a just response?

What does suspending do to the student suspended? Does it follow the "out of sight, out of mind" principal? Will it help keep the kid off marijuana? If the kid's parents are working, because like most folks the parents are poor and spend most of their time working, what will the kid do during all those unsupervised hours?

Might it be better if marijuana were found on a kid, that there be a schoolroom with a setting like alcoholics anonymous on school grounds for the student to have added to his or her schedule 1/2 hour everyday for 1 week?

It just seems like supsending a kid for marijuana possession is likely to have somewhat opposite effects from the stated reason of "punishment".

Whether or not Trayvon Martin was suspended for marijuana is largely irrelevant to his murder, but had he been in school, would he still be alive today? Has our educational system progressed to the point where now, if you're not Jesus Christ "Pefection itself" and you make a mistake, however small, say look crosseyed one morning at a teacher, should the school, after due process of course, simply execute the child?

What is the purpose of suspension, and does it have the desired effects on the student subjected to it?

~~~

Just wanted to get that off my chest.

[RKP5637]

1. In the US, as in other countries, punishment and punitive measures often sadly reign over

intelligence and logic. Yet, those with money and political influence often get a free reign to do WTF they want with no repercussions.

Often I feel we are just digging a hole deeper and deeper.

[zbdent]

2. I think the Death Penalty for having smoked marijuana is a bit much ...

and who assigned some neighborhood watcher as Judge, Jury, and Executioner, anyway?

[mainer]

3. If he really DID have marijuana, why weren't the police called?

Or did the school suddenly come up with this "empty baggie" story? And how do they know it had marijuana if the baggie was empty?

[leftofcool]

4. Most schools have a zero tolerance drug policy, period.

As well they should. It is not revelant to the shooting.

[Uncle Joe]

8. Would Trayon have been shot had he not been suspended?

Would Zimmerman's defenders in the media and elsewhere use this in an attempt to demonize Martin or obliquely justify the shooting?

In those aspects this is relevant.

"Zero tolerance," "three strikes and you're out," it's the same martial mentality.

[leftofcool]

10. Apples and oranges..........school policy vs legal/prison policy

[Uncle Joe]

11. Apples and oranges have one thing in common, they're both fruit.

A nation's draconian legal/prison policies can't help but in turn influence its' school policies.

Authoritarianism unlike money in the general economy actually does trickle down.

[Trillo]

17. The logical endpoint of zero tolerance is death.

It may not be relevant to Trayvan Martin's shooting, and I'm not claiming otherwise. However, the end result is curious given the asserted lack of connection between the school suspension and the death.

[uponit7771]

5. No, he was suspended for TRACES of mj in a bag!!!

[Uncle Joe]

6. I guess in an indirect way Trayon is just one of the latest victims of our insane "War on Drugs"

Our policies at all levels are counterproductive, dysfunctional, myopic, draconian and no doubt that supreme taker of life; Dracula would love them.

Thanks for the thread, Trillo.

[RZM]

7. Beer is legal and I assume he would have been punished for having an empty can on school property

The issue here is less marijuana, and more than a minor was found with evidence of an intoxicating substance on school grounds. Even if weed were legal (and I strongly believe it should be), you will still have to be 21 to buy or possess it. Schools would still have 'zero tolerance' policies.

[Uncle Joe]

9. I'm all for cannabis being legal and being of a required age 18-21 to purchase it.

I believe it shouldn't be on school grounds but I also believe our overall drug laws have distorted any sense of proportion in regards to punishment or treatment.

[Trillo]

19. Thank you for your interest, Uncle Joe.

[Demit]

12. I think the atrocious Stand Your Ground law is more pertinent than the "had he been elsewhere this

wouldn't have happened" game. Yeah, if he'd never gone to the store it wouldn't have happened either. I see your point about school & suspensions & so forth, but isn't that a subject for the Education forum?

[saras]

13. The purpose of the suspension is to mark him as legal to shoot.

[Trillo]

15. So the due process is to get suspended students out of continuing supervision?

Once they're in the real criminal justice system, perhaps they live too long?

Sadly, saras, I think you've got it.

[Hugabear]

14. Judging from what I've seen lately, he should have been executed on the spot

After all, marijuana is only one step away from breaking & entering, rape, and murder.

I've seen Reefer Madness. I know what happens. Imagine how scary Reefer Madness would have been if it had featured black people.

[NotThisTime]

16. Should he be suspended for bringing it to school? Yes... does that mean that some lunatic should

take his life? No freaking way... the school has an obligation, it is zero tolerance, as long as they distribute the punishment equally to all students then it is fair, but this in no way should be part of the discussion of Trayvon, it has nothing to do with what happened to him except he was in the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong lunatic.

[Trillo]

18. So the purpose of school has then primarily become teaching the masses zero tolerance.

Above all other things, that lesson must be taught to everyone, equally. What happens when that lesson reaches the non-school public streets and continues into adult life?