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"In other words, students are being pushed out of schools for conduct that is predictable for school-age kids."

With all due respect to a person such as yourself who is a child advocate, with a law degree to boot, what planet are YOU from?

While I concede some of the criminal and sociopathic behavior may be predictable, such as how some of our scholars may react with unbridled violence to a peer who openly admits to eating at Burger King or doughnuts, has the wrong color bandana in their pocket, or says the wrong word in a simple greeting that obviously would fly over your head. In your world, it may very well be acceptable for 'school age children' to engage in drug traffikking or the traffikking of their female peers for sexual purposes, and dismiss these behaviors as typical teenage behaviors similar to sneaking to sneaking a cigarette in the boys' room.

Just because a behavior may be PREDICTABLE it doesn't necessarily make it APPROPRIATE, much less, something we as a society should be asked to believe is ACCEPTABLE in any millieu of our society, including our public schools, save the penal system.

Indeed, Mr. Pitts seems to have defined acceptable conduct down considerably. Most people my age remember when a fight at school was a big deal--you might see just one in a whole year. Ditto for drugs, unless you lived in a big city. I know any student who assaulted a teacher would never have been seen in school again.

We have dumbed down not only our textbooks, but our expectations of acceptable, "predictable" behavior--and kids will continue to live down to our expectations if we continue to accept what should be unacceptable.

It is apparent that Mr. Pitts will find little sympathy in this forum. While we may differ politically, most of us have been around the block a time or two and have learned the truth about kids gone wild. His initial complaint concerned the NCLB program. I agree with his assessment regarding the harmful effects of it. The pressure it put on teachers to produce geniuses from academically challenged students turned our school systems into one big race to be king of the hill, imho.

However, that is where my full agreement with Mr. Pitts stops. Without knowing what Mr. Pitts considers to be routine kid stunts or expected behavior for children, I can't blindly say he is right or wrong. If he is talking about behavior severe enough to warrant suspension or expulsion, how can he justify this as "expected"? Too many kids today show NO respect for authority, discipline or adults in general. We seem to be a nation that has tolerated unacceptable social behaviors for so long (much due to the likes of folks like Mr. Pitts), even cussing, striking adults, drugs, endangering the lives of others, truancy, constant disruption and disrespect are considered normal behavior for kids. Then you get the parents, who have set no limits, let alone enforced any, yapping at school officials for "picking" on their child.

I say put the little darlings in reform SCHOOL and let them get a good taste of reality. The ones who learn from their mistakes have a fighting chance. The ones who don't are the ones who need to be taken out of the general population.

The question I have for Mr. PItts is this: once we remove SRO's and Tazer's from the public schools, what methods does he propose to control the gangs, drug dealing, prevent sexual assaults, burglaries, robberies and other serious crimes that do indeed go on in our public schools?

By the time these kids hit high school, their personalities are largely formed. Their sense (or lack) of morality is largely formed. Thinking nice thoughts and telling Johnnie Gang Banger he needs to learn to play nice with others isn't the answer to our problems in the schools.

We need to empower teachers to control their own classrooms. We need to empower principals to control the school grounds. That means removing elements who come to make trouble, and leaving those who WANT an education to get one.

Time to resegregate these government indoctrination camps and send the 'pants on the ground' crowd back to their government hovels to kill and rob each other instead of taking out their 'revenge' on kids who want to learn.

Better yet, shut them down entirely as they now teach revisionist history and test scores are graded on 'curves'...code for better not expel Tyrone for telling the teacher to suck his ****.

Kids will be kids! Rules are made to be broken! Wrong to both statements! Spare the rod, spoil the child! This statement comes from one-room schools a century ago. Tasers & SROs in schools are here to assure the safety of the students who want to learn. Raise the bar on expectations, be consistent & follow the rules. Public schools are a privilege, not a right.

I teach at an Alternative School. Our students are all long-term suspended from high school or middle school. They are all in the Juvenile Justice system and they all have a probation officer. If you met any of these kids your first thought would be, "What a nice, smart, polite kid; he/she is going to have a great future." They ALL are very bright and intelligent, they ALL made good grades, they ALL have teachers who regularly call to check on them because they ARE good kids. Incidentally they ALL have parents who are HIGHLY involved in their lives and doing their best to help them through this rough spot. Their school "crime" was being caught with a small amount of marijuana. Yes, marijuana is illegal, however had they been caught with these small amounts anywhere but school, nothing would have happened except maybe a phone call to the parents. Zero tolerance dictates these children are automatically expelled from school for a FULL school year. All of the students I serve WANT an education, they are all old enough to quit school but they know that is a poor choice and will limit their future options. None of them are violent, disruptive, or mean. Violent and disruptive children remain in school, they are not expelled because there is no zero tolerance policy in the school district's handbook. Violent and disruptive children are the ones who ensure their classmates are not receiving an education by disrupting class, EVERY day. Violent and disruptive students are the ones who demand - and receive - 95% of the teacher's time and resources, thereby stealing that valuable resource from their classmates. Violent and disruptive students often act out with the GOAL of being suspended, they know if they disrupt for the 55th time in ONE day, they will be sent home and can enjoy the afternoon on their own. And let's not forget, violence is also a crime - just not recognized as one in school under zero tolerance policy. Beating another child into unconsciousness results in a three day suspension, if that were to occur anywhere BUT school, there would be criminal charges filed and consequences to be paid. At school, because we are dealing with minors, it is up to the parents of the beaten student to initiate a civil suit against the parents of the beater. Parents don't do this because their child fears repercussion, and with good reason. Teachers, who are adults, are afriad of these students. Zero tolerance for drugs (which are a part of societ - that's a fact, whether you like the idea or not) creates an undeserving prison population, who will - once having been in the system - more than likely will NEVER contribute their potential to society. Violence is what we need to remove from our schools, violence is what is destroying the education of our children. The kids I see and work with every day deserve and desire an education, their only crime is they made a poor choice - ONCE, whereas the violent and disruptive students get away with their crimes on a DAILY basis.

I couldn't agree with Pitts more. Thank you for writing this!