Political Correctness isn't the Problem

I'm sure you're familiar with the narrative by now (Hell, you may even believe it. It's certainly popular.): Political correctness is turning us all into unthinking word-police that care more about saying the right thing than actually being honest (or reasonable, or rational, or whatever other virtue is supposed to trump word-choice). It's a sentiment that often feels accurate, especially when we read about the kind of hilarious idiocy that gripped my home state of Rhode Island today.

It won't take you long to read that article (or the comments) and understand the inanity of the debate that has arisen from the incident, but in case you're busy, I'll summarize:

An 8 year-old at Tiogue Elementary School in Coventry wore a homemade hat to school that was intended to honor American troops. The hat was confiscated by the boy's teacher because it had toy soldiers pasted to it, and the soldiers were holding guns. The Coventry school district has a zero-tolerance policy for articles of clothing depicting weapons or drugs, a policy of which the hat -- despite be best of intentions -- ran afoul.

Naturally, the overwhelming response has been Outrage! With a capital O! How dare the school district punish a boy for being patriotic? What a stupid, backwards rule! This political correctness has gone to far! Rabble rabble rabble!

But political correctness isn't actually the problem here. It's just a favorite scapegoat of the incredibly well-organized right-wing message machine (You know, the same one that convinced you unions are to blame for layoffs and poor people made your taxes go up.). Like it or not, the school district can legally prohibit students from displaying certain messages on the clothing they wear to school. You could argue that that's a bad thing, or that the responsibility should lie with parents and not the school system. That's a different debate. For now, the school has obviously determined that there's something to be gained from banning clothing that depicts weapons and/or drugs, and it's probably not the worst idea they ever had.

What may be the worst idea the school system ever had -- the actual culprit in this stupid case -- is making the "hey, don't wear t-shirts with guns or pot leaves on them" rule a "zero-tolerance policy."

Zero-tolerance policies are never a good idea. Why? Because they're absolute, and life isn't. The architects of the Coventry school district's policy probably weren't thinking about a situation like this one when they decided not to tolerate pictures of guns on students' clothing. They were probably trying to create a safe environment for the children, one in which no one would feel intimidated by a fellow student's wardrobe. That's a fine goal, one worth making a policy about. But when that policy leads to confiscating toy soldiers from an 8 year-old, something's wrong.

Political correctness isn't the problem, absolutism is.