When I was a middle school aged student, much of my writing had macabre, violent undertones. I wasn't violent by nature, just warped.

You see, I was ahead of most of my class in reading, and I continually searched for new material. I quickly found Stephen King's books, and began devouring them at a rate of about one a week, which at the age of 13 is a pretty substantial quantity.

As young artists are wont to do, much of my creative writing began mimicking the substance and style of my new found hero. I wrote about zombies and vampires (and, I think, vampire zombies), about shipwrecked persons given to self cannibalism and a number of topics too gruesome even for a CSI plot.

And, in the mix were a few requisite apocalytic visions of a world where the schools were the first to go (and, being a "weird al" fan, a spoof of "Thriller" called School's Lunch" that I still consider pretty decent [sample lyric..."and noone's gonna save ya from the ham with the 40 eyes, girl....]). Stuff that, under today's "zero tolerance" rules would have led to my expulsion. My expulsion in the world where I grew up would have meant a virtual certainty that I never would have gotten my high school diploma. That I would have found myself quickly drawn into the world of drug addiction and petty crime that enslaves so many of the poor in our society.

Pretty harsh punishment for someone whose work wasn't even original!

If we're going to have a "zero tolerance" policy, then we must cut off students' unacceptable expression at the head. Ban Stephen King, R.L. Stine, and most other novelists from other school and public libraries. Ban Steinbeck (that ol' Tom Joad's a bad influence), Shakespeare (gang violence in Romeo and Juliet), Harry Potter (remember, all that violent magic DOES go on in a school), and anything else that would encourage a student's creativity, including the Bible (as slingshotting giants is a pretty crappy way to solve political conflict).

We need a return to common sense in this country. "Zero tolerance" laws are actually taking us in the OPPOSITE direction.