"Our society has taken things past the point when boys would be boys and girls would be girls. "

I respectfully disageree. The only thing that has happened in society is that we have more dangerous toys and an inflated sense of paranoia.

There is a perception that bringing guns to school is a phenomenon that cropped up in the last several years. Check your history books, it is not new.   Gangs are not new. Violence is not new.   What has changed is that we live in a 24/7 news blitz with several networks that have a mandate to feed us news constantly.   Where once a story would have been a short piece on the 6 o'clock news, now we are treated to live coverage of police chases, school lockdowns, and more details than ever before.

I agree that many teachers are scared. Many people today are also afraid to fly or work in a high-rise building. I'm afraid we've lost perspective and reason. Instead of tackling the big issues, such as how students get access to such weapons in the first place, we create smokescreens with policies that do little good.   Zero Tolerance does not work, there is more evidence against it than there is for it.