On the day after the tragic Virginia Tech shootings, I wrote that "we should guard against costly overreactions [to the event] such as the draconian 'zero tolerance' policies implemented in many schools after the Columbine attacks in 1999."

Sadly, as Eugene pointed out yesterday, at least one school has already succumbed to the zero tolerance temptation: Yale University reacted to the Virginia Tech tragedy by banning the use of "realistic-looking" swords in theater productions on campus. As the Yale Daily News points out in the article linked above, the new rule has already harmed several theater productions which will have to make do with unrealistic props that might reduce the versimilitude of the plays in question. Obviously, many classic plays have battle or duel scenes that could potentially be enhanced through the use of realistic-looking swords. Just think of Hamlet and Henry V. And, as reasons that Eugene cogently explained in his post, there is absolutely no reason to believe that the Yale rule will prevent mass murder or any other kind of violence on campus.

In and of itself, the new Yale rule probably isn't that important (except to the school's theater students). But I fear that it may be the beginning of a broader trend towards enacting "zero tolerance" rules that do little or nothing to reduce violence, but - especially in their cumulative effect - may well reduce the quality of life on campus.

To reiterate an argument from my earlier post, it is essential to recognize that on-campus murders of any kind are extraordinarily rare. We should not, therefore, adopt draconian rules to prevent them unless there is strong evidence that they really will significantly reduce their incidence. Obviously, reducing the incidence of an already highly uncommon event is quite difficult to do. The new Yale rule doesn't even come close to meeting this standard. Hopefully, university administrators at other schools will have better sense than to imitate it.

CONFLICT OF INTEREST WATCH: I suppose I should mention that I am a Yale Law School graduate and therefore have a tie to the school. I doubt that this biases me in favor of Yale's rule. If anything, it probably makes me even more annoyed by it than I would have been otherwise!