Designed to break, but not to fail.

As many may know, I hold an amateur radio (ham) license. There are several FCC rules that I must follow to use this license and keep it. These are mainly common sense and courtesy items. I can only operate within certain defined frequency bands. I can only use certain modulation modes in some places (no voice on some frequencies, FM restricted to certain parts of some bands, and so on). I can only use up to a set amount of power - and should use the minimum necessary power at all times. There are some places, like near the Canadian border, where some frequencies I could otherwise use are disallowed.

While all these rules follow rather sensibly from various technical and courtesy reasons, there is one more rule. It says there are circumstances where it is acceptable to ignore all the others if it is necessary. During an emergency (defined as an imminent threat to life or property) the rule says that the others are not to get in the way. In a simplified form: In an emergency, use whatever means are available and necessary.

I have been fortunate enough that I have never had to exercise this exception. I hope I remain as fortunate. But should the worst happen, I won't hesitate to use whatever means are available and necessary. And that one rule allows it so there shouldn't be trouble afterward.

Other places have so-called Zero-Tolerance Policies. These have been rightly derided as really being Zero-Intelligence Policies. (Some examples.) They remove any allowance of judgment and call something wrong in every case, no matter the circumstances. They may be well-meant, but are poorly thought out. The latest idiocy involves one student letting another use an inhaler to stop a severe asthma attack. Because of the zero intelligence policy this is a drug delivery in some blinded minds and not the rescue it was seen as by the person having the attack.

Perhaps some schools, and governments and agencies, should take a lesson from the FCC. The FCC rules might be designed to break in an emergency, but zero tolerance policies fail in such circumstances. They fail to help. They fail to do any good. And may even cause the worst failure of all: doing harm.