Editor's note: This Week in Ann Arbor History looks back at notable moments from the city's past.

Image from the Year 2000 (Y2K) Decision Support Activity, which was a Y2K-compliance office of the U.S. Army.

"Is Ann Arbor prepared for Y2K?"

Ann Arbor might be the second-brainiest city in America, but in 1999 it was as susceptible to the Y2K or "Millenium Bug" phenomenon as the rest of the country. 

People forget it now, some 11 years later, but at this point in 1999, a large number of people believed computers would be unable to process a year ending in zeroes — or at least would mistake the year for 1900. The implications for everything from nuclear missile silos to the banking system and people's ability to shop without interruption were thought to be immense. 

A group called "Educators and Administrators for Society's Youth" — comprised of faculty and staff from the University of Michigan, Eastern Michigan, and Washtenaw Community College — had a seminar to ask whether Ann Arbor was, in fact, ready for Y2K. Officials from a number of county agencies and service organizations were invited to attend the event, which was moderated by Franklin Frith, a "self-employed Y2K consultant from Lapeer County." 

Y2K compliance was big business at the time, and even the University of Michigan ran a Y2K website, Year2000.umich.edu, and held a seminar on Y2K compliance.

• Click here to see what Americans were doing to prepare for Y2K.

The mass murder at Columbine High School in Littlefield, Colorado on April 20, 1999 was by no means the first school shooting in history. But the violent attack, which left 15 people dead, including the shooters, and two dozen injured, motivated school districts around the country to step up their efforts to prevent—and, if not, to punish—violence and the presence of weapons on school ground.

Some schools banned students from wearing trenchcoats, which the Columbine shooters used to store their shotguns. And other schools adopted "zero tolerance" policies, which made expulsion compulsory for students who bring weapons onto school grounds.

Ypsilanti Public Schools was one of the first districts in Michigan to adopt a zero tolerance policy, which it did 11 years ago this week after a unanimous vote by its trustees.

Truth is, zero tolerance had long been the rule. State law requires the explusion of students possessing "dangerous weapons" on school property, weapons ranging from firearms on down to brass knuckles.

But the law has four exceptions: If the weapon wasn't possessed to be used as a weapon; if it was not knowingly possessed; if the student didn't know or have a reason to know the implement constituted a dangerous weapon; and if the weapon was possessed at the direction or the express permission of school or police officials.

The zero tolerance policy was meant to remove the exceptions: You bring a weapon on campus, and you're expelled. But in an early test case things didn't quite work out that way.

In one incident reported by The Ann Arbor News, two students argued in the parking lot at the high school, and the boy smashed out the windows of his girlfriend's car with a rock. He was still holding the rock when the girl pulled a 3-inch kitchen knife from her car, allegedly to defend herself. 

The boy was expelled for the rest of the year, and the girl was suspended for the rest of the semester, but was allowed to return in January, The News reported. The girl was viewed as the victim in the situation, and so her punishment was less severe. Under a true zero tolerance policy, both students would've been gone.

Ron Wiedbusch, head of Ypsilanti’s Safe Schools program, disagreed with the school's board's decision in that matter. He thought both students should have been expelled. So did then superintendent David Zuhlke, who said "the minute you allow those few circumstances when kids are allowed to bring weapons to school, it opens up the floodgates."

"Our program has become a model for others in the county and the state," Weidbusch said at the time. "Our website is averaging over 500 hits a day, so people are looking to us to see what we're doing."

James David Dickson can be reached at JamesDickson@AnnArbor.com.