Is a Zero Tolerance policy bigotry?

Are "Zero Tolerance" policies at a school bigotry?

Reference.com calls bigotry "stubborn and complete intolerance of any creed, belief, or opinion that differs from one's own." Merriam-Webster.com says a bigot is "one who regards or treats the members of a group with hatred and intolerance." That sounds very much like a zero tolerance policy to me... Bigotry is not just related to race or gender. It is a term that can be applied to anything. Imagine if we got politicians to start admitting their bigotry towards guns of all kinds? Toy or real? Addressed it like every other method of bigotry? Get the ridiculous "politically correct" thing to work for us?

Read this story if you want to know what I'm coming at this from. The level of "stubborn and complete intolerance of any...opinion that differs from one's own" and treating someone from another group with intolerance is remarkable. I don't see how you can be the level of stupid displayed in this story and still have a stamp of approval as an educator.

At BEST, Zero Tolerance policies in school are shear laziness. A conscious, pre-determined decision to NOT think through each situation as it comes to you in leadership? That's the worst sort of training you could give to children. What if a judge did that? Pre-determined how he was going to deal with each case based on what the accusation was, without taking into account the surrounding circumstances. Yeah, we'd all want him fired...