Zero Tolerance?

One of the Little Janes came home from school yesterday and said one of his classmates was going to get suspended for bringing a pocketknife to school. I don't quite know how to feel about this. Certainly, you should not bring pocketknives to school and a kid who is 4 feet tall probably does not possess clear reasoning ability on the appropriate time to use and / or display a knife. On the other hand I think the zero tolerance rules have gotten a little out of hand. In part I think this is because schools are so afraid of being sued that they have removed all ability for school administrators to make a judgement call. Hopefully a letter will come home today providing a few details (without naming the child, although we already know who it was). The long holiday weekend should give everyone time to cool off and calm down.