The people making these decisions need to be fired. Nothing less is acceptable.
But in this specific area of interest I cannot blame school officials. This “one size fits all” mentality that has befallen school policy has been cause by some really bad and irresponsible “parents,” who refuse to allow school leaders to use judgment in dealing with behavior issues, and run into the principals office with a lawyer on their arm every time “Johnny” gets caught scribbling graffiti on the bathroom wall.
America is infested with parents who throw their kids in “daycare centers” as soon as the centers will take them, and when the kids are old enough to addict to TV, end up being babysat by whatever the media broadcasts. These parents know they're not doing what's best for their kids, and they're guilt-ridden over it. But, many of them are also narcissists...having been indoctrinated in public schools, themselves...so when their child gets in trouble at school and they feel that “johnny's failure's” may be a result of their bad parenting, they turn any incident into an opportunity to threaten and attack an administrator or principal for “unfairness.”
I've seen this garbage happen hundreds of times, and it's almost always the same. It's some guilt-ridden mother who, because she's put her own life and pleasures ahead of the best interest of her child, has been removed from their child's life to the point of hardly being able to remember his name. These are often “mothers” who either had “johnny” out of wedlock or are in their second, third, or fourth marriages.
This is not always the case with these ridiculous “my child is perfect!” mothers...but this little “mold” often fits, hand-in-glove.”
From the standpoint of the administrator or principal, coming under attack when you try to exercise judgment...often to prevent ridiculous over-action in cases like these...forces administrations to create “one-size-fits-all” policies, like “no tolerance” policies. I really think that in many cases school leadership would far prefer to allow seasoned and caring school leaders to use personal judgment in matters like these. But honestly, these ridiculous parents who absolutely refuse to allow administrators to see “gray area” in exercising authority and discipline force schools into this kind of rule-making.
It sickens me as it does you. But as I said, schools are to blame for a lot of “bovine excrement” with regard to dumbing-down kids, attacking societal norms, attacking faith and family, attacking academic standards...lot of things. But in these type discipline cases I'd suggest you look to bad parents as the cause of the problem. Because I can assure you that were you in the right “seat” to see what was going on behind the walls of these school administrators offices you quickly find out that “chitty parents” are the perpetrators of much of the most shocking and destructive behaviors that ever occur in a public school.