In response to "Schools' zero-tolerance policies criticized," as an educator for more than 20 years I know that schools are damned if they do and damned if they don't. Had someone been hurt by the mace in Severna Park High School student Lyndsay Benefiel's bookbag, we would have questioned why she was allowed to have it in school. Same goes with the lighter and the knife in the lacrosse players' bags in Easton. Schools have rules for a reason, and it may have a little something to do with our litigious society.

Karen Parisi