Zero Tolerance equals Zero Discretion

I've heard so much recently about problems with zero tolerance policies at schools. The stories have been good students either suspended or expelled on a first time offense. The latest story that I heard about on the news today was a boy who was expelled because of a spit-ball gun. The school stood by it's decision believing that they made the correct decision. Maybe "decision" isn't the best word, because you can hardly call it a "decision" by blindly following a policy. These are people who want someone expelled, because they consider a spit-ball gun a weapon. Would these same people have agreed with President Obama when he said that a Supreme Court Justice should have compassion. This is one of those instances that compassion should be the first thought. Whatever happened to discretion. Don't they realize that this is already impacting students. Why should they have discretion if adults - especially those in authority - don't have any, or at least don't exercise it. Bring discretion back to the public school systems...aka common sense.