I know this is an old post, but as I found it searching through the site I just had to comment, as I go to South Lakes and knew Josh. From one point, Josh obviously shouldn't have taken the risk he did by going out and smoking given that he had gotten in trouble for it before, although it is very common at South Lakes. However, this zero tolerance policy is still horrid. If they looked at things on a case to case basis and decided based on that, then maybe Josh might not have done this.

I also know the principal that caught them (the grade level assistant principal, not the school principal, he's cool), and it's like this guy only cares about getting students in as much trouble as he can and not about their education.
Again, zero tolerance is bullshit