Kids These Days:

Last week, the Daily Pilot published a Sounding Off by Gunnar Gooding, a parent at Corona del Mar High School (“Start treating CdM High fairly,” Nov. 10).

Gooding wanted to accomplish two goals. The first was to remind readers that even with the many controversies surrounding the school over the past 18 months, including missing cheerleading funds, the posting of a Facebook video in which three students threatened to rape and kill a fellow student, the staging, unstaging and restaging of a controversial play, the departure of a principal, the forced leave of absence of a teacher subsequent reinstatement of the drama teacher, that CdM is a good school.

The second goal was to “…urge the Pilot to abandon its recent tabloid mentality.” Specifically, Gooding wrote: “Front-page articles on a ‘member stuck in a ring’ or an ugly Facebook incident from 10 months ago are salacious and not worthy of publication in a community newspaper.”

I’m with Gooding on the “member stuck in a ring” story. Must have been a slow news day. And, yes, CdM is a good school — a very good school.

Unfortunately, the Facebook story will be played out for years because it set a precedent that broke the back of any zero-tolerance rules.

The Facebook story confirmed, once and for all, that there is no zero-tolerance policy in the school district. After all, if you cannot expel four students for threatening to rape and kill someone, fellow student or not, who is eligible for expulsion? How about the student who shows up to an after-school event drunk or high? If this person were not a threat to others, perhaps only to himself, and he were caught, should he be expelled? You might make the case that because he broke the rules, yes, he should be expelled.

A few months ago, I might have agreed with you. But now, thanks to three of the Facebook boys being allowed to return and graduate with their class, all bets are off. After all, if we are not going to expel students for threatening bodily harm, how can we expel a student who is high at a football game?