Zero Tolerance Is Not What Teenagers Need

Re “Finding Middle Ground” (Nov. 24): As a former swimming coach who taught kids of all ages in Los Angeles and Orange County, I am appalled with the Newport-Mesa school district’s “zero tolerance” policy, which suspends and transfers those students who are caught consuming alcohol off campus at marginally related events.

I challenge the intention and the integrity of any educator who claims it is in a student’s best interest to remove the student from friends, teachers and the environment that has benefited them. No teenager who is so unjustly punished will ever forgive or forget the damage that is done in this manner.

Isn’t being a teenager in these times already difficult enough?

TYLER ST. MARK

Beverly Hills