Zero tolerance?

Once again the absolute stupidity of school's "zero tolerance" policies is rearing it's ugly head. Usually this come up when some kid is suspended or expelled for taking an aspirin, or worse, giving one to a friend. This case is a bit different. A school in Rhode Island is refusing to use this Photo, submitted by a student for his yearbook picture.

This picture violates the schools "zero tolerance" policy on weapons. Yeah, the boy is posing with a big ass sword there. But not because he is promoting violence, no he like medieval history and is a member of The Society for Creative Anachronism. Now I know SCA folks and they are often a bit strange but promoting violence is not a big thing.

I might cut the school some slack on the grounds that "These are the rules and the students know and should obey them." grounds but the school violates it's own policy. The mascot of the school is "The Patriots" and said Patriot is often displayed with a rifle in his hands. In addition, on the schools webpage, there are pictures of students carrying toy weapons and miming acts of violence. To top off the hypocrisy of this policy, they told the student that he could buy an ad and run the picture there. So it is zero tolerance unless you pay us.