The recent gun "crisis" at Cherokee Trail High School is a textbook case in mindless bureaucracy trampling common sense. Marie Morrow - a well-behaved, self-motivated, responsible, morally upright, model student - was instantly suspended for 10 days and threatened with expulsion for a misunderstanding that could and should have been resolved by reasonable administrators (pardon the oxymoron) in 10 minutes.

Embarrassed, in the face of outraged public reaction, the Cherry Creek School District has backed down, withdrawn its threatened expulsion and reduced Marie's sentence to time served. But there's much to be learned from this incident.

Marie is the commander of the Douglas County Young Marines Drill Team. She and her fellow leathernecks-in-waiting have been practicing several times a week after school for the last six months in preparation for a national competition at the U.S. Air Force Academy in April. Marie, a senior, hopes to enroll in the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy upon graduation. Is this an exemplary youngster or what?

Her crime was having fake drill-team wooden practice rifles in the back of her SUV in the school parking lot. Another student saw them and reported it to school authorities. So far so good. That's the appropriate response. They could have been actual weapons. But, of course, they weren't. And when school administrators determined that, they could have defused the situation by counseling Marie to make other arrangements for storing or transporting the dummy rifles in the future. Unfortunately, that's not the way educrats think or act.

Instead of considering the spirit of the law on which their school district's policy was based, they reflexively took refuge behind the letter of it and came down on Marie like the Spanish Inquisition.

It's perfectly understandable that in the wake of the Columbine tragedy, lawmakers and school administrators became acutely sensitive to the danger of weapons in schools and their environs. But that's no excuse for knee-jerk absolutism, blind to rational distinctions. In fact, there was ample wiggle room for school administrators had they chosen to use it.

The district's policy covers "Discretionary suspension or expulsion for weapons in accordance with state law." (It would seem that the use of the word "discretionary" implies that administrators have some choice in these matters.) It reads: "As used in this policy, 'weapon' means any object which is generally used for nonviolent or nondangerous purposes, but which can be considered a weapon under this policy as a result of its use or intended or threatened use" [italics mine]. Aha! Obviously Marie didn't use these fake rifles as a weapon, nor did she intend or threaten to. No harm, no foul. Case closed. Who would have complained?

Dealing with it this way would have required the application of common sense and discretionary judgment, coupled with a small dose of courage. These are not qualities typically found in school administrators or the school district lawyers who advise them. Discretionary judgment, then, becomes something to be avoided at all costs. Making decisions like this can expose educrats to risk. Consequently, district policy becomes a shield, something to hide behind, rather than a reasonable guide.

This has produced these so-called "zero tolerance" policies, mindless of extenuating circumstances, nuances or shades of gray resulting in preposterously severe penalties for minor transgressions or innocent misunderstandings. Marie's treatment was just the latest example.

Sen. Kevin Lundberg, R-Berthoud, has sensibly proposed that state law in this area be revised, "to put some common-sense language into the statue where school districts don't have their hands tied when everyone agrees it should have some flexibility." That no doubt makes eminent sense to most people. The obstacle Lundberg will encounter is that, unfortunately, not "everyone agrees." There are too many hidebound school board members, educrats and teachers' union lobbyists who prefer to have their hands tied, and legislators all too willing to accommodate them.

Mike Rosen's radio show airs weekdays from 9 a.m. to noon on 850 KOA. He can be reached by e-mail at mikerosen@850koa.com.