The school year is well underway and parents in both the Sunnyvale and Cupertino school districts have recently received their annual Zero Tolerance reminder that students with plastic knives and nail files will be punished with the same severity as if they carried AK47s and sawed-off shotguns.

Zero Tolerance is one of the stupidest ordinances passed down from Sacramento (assuming it originated there). It asks whoever is enforcing it to check their intellect in the parking lot and regard a plastic knife in a kindergartner's lunchbox with the same gravity as a gun in a high school locker.

Who came up with this nonsense? And how does this teach our children anything except to be sneaky or that adults are too stupid to differentiate between extremes?

Last year, an elementary student forgot that she had left a Swiss Army Knife in her backpack after a weekend in the woods. She remembered, told the teacher, and he wisely held it for her until the end of the day when her parents could retrieve it for her. This is used as an example as how students can "avert disaster."

How does a forgotten camping knife in a backpack qualify as a "disaster?" Does this teach our children responsibility? Hardly. Let's not lose our heads over something so trivial.

Basically, rules were made to be appropriately implemented. This Zero Tolerance is clearly an example of rules gone haywire. It's illogical and absurd in school districts that are known for high academic standards.

I carried a nail file in my purse in junior high. Now I'd be expelled for that.

There are so many better ways to spend brainpower on education than coming up with and implementing ridiculous rules like Zero Tolerance. What if we took a more reasonable stance toward this entire issue? What if we let the punishment fit the crime? What if we stopped criminalizing things that aren't actually dangerous?

Can we please to a reality check?

Julie Colwell

Sunnyvale

Plaza del Sol could be put
to good use for community

I'm a resident of Sunnyvale. If you are like me, you've probably strolled through Murphy Street and wandered over to the Town and Country shopping complex.

Perhaps, you've eaten dim sum at the Bamboo Garden and afterwards, strolled over to look at the new Plaza del Sol.

Is it just me, or does that brand new spanking square with sloping concrete curves and immaculately manicured lawns with the giant fruit sculptures appear a bit desolate? There's no one there.

Looking at the concrete benches and rails, one would think at least some skateboarders would be hanging out there, but those metal attachments on the seats seem to have deterred them.

Why isn't the city council doing anything about this? Is it because they've finished that project and are ready to move on to the next taxpayer financed construction?

Why don't we try to make it more useful? Why don't we try and make it attractive for people to frequent that place? The city could hold fairs or mini festivals there. How about putting some play structures there to make a wonderful children's playground where parents can take them after a day of busy shopping or to work off the calories after a filling meal?

As a parent, I would love to have a free oasis downtown to spend some time with my son. The Plaza del Sol would be perfect. Can't we try and do something better to make it more than a glorified cover for an underground parking garage?

Let's try to make a nice free public place for everyone to go to before and after the new downtown gets built—a place for community.

Victor Ng-Thow-Hing

Sunnyvale

Public safety entry
creates bad feelings

The Sept. 28 issue of The Sunnyvale Sun reported in its public safety log that a resident from Enderby Way blocked off the street by placing signs reading "no soccer parking" and put children at risk by making them walk across the street to San Antonio Park.

This information is inaccurate. Many within the community have read the log and have taken it for fact. It has caused accusations and bad feelings within the neighborhood, and it's important for community harmony that the record be set straight.

The factual events, as I have personally witnessed them, are as follows:

*Signs were indeed placed along the curbside of Enderby Way. However, they were placed there by someone associated with the soccer league, which was using San Antonio Park at that time, and not by a resident of Enderby Way.

*The street was not blocked off at any time.

* Children were not made to walk across the street and no one was placed in danger at anytime.

I hope this will clear up any misunderstandings.

Kara Gant

A resident of Enderby Way

We are republishing this letter because The Sun was not delivered to the Enderby neighborhood when the letter was first published. —Editor