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Zero Tolerance Policies in Schools
Paper on zero-tolerance school policies
Thesis on zero tolerance in schools
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Zero Tolerance: More Harm than Good
The punishment does not always fit the crime. Zero tolerance policies began as a way to protect children from potentially violent situation. Over the years, these policies designed to protect are now doing more harm than good. Children are being punished for simply being children. Zero tolerances policies need to be replaced because these harsh policies have resulted in an increasing number of suspensions, many students harshly punished for minimal offenses, and these policies have a negative impact on students.
Zero tolerance policies have resulted in an increasing number of suspensions. “In 2009-10, at least 2,624 secondary schools across the nation suspended 25% of their total student body” (Losen & Martinez 15). Forcing
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children to miss school is not helping them.
Suspended children are missing out on valuable school time. These children often miss out on important exams and assignments. “Many of these children are missing out on the education their schools are providing, and they are learning far worse lessons away from those schools” (Henault 548).
The majority of these zero tolerance punishments are for non-violent minimal offenses.
Zero tolerance policies are punishing children for minimal offenses. Some examples include violation of dress code, writing on the desk, and tardiness. Although theses offenses deserve punishment, they do not warrant the harshness that zero tolerance policies entail. For instance, five-year-old Ethan Clos was suspended from Reid Elementary School in Springfield Ohio for having a Mohawk haircut. School officials stated that his haircut was a distraction for other students. After missing two days of school his mother was forced to shave his head in order for him to be allowed to return to school. Although his haircut was probably a distraction, the child did not need to be suspended. Children can be distracted by anything for
example, someone with their arm in a cast. Would the same principles be applied to a student wearing a cast if it was distracting the other children? “In Chicago Illinois, in 2009, two dozen 11 to 15 year old students in a charter school were arrested and detained overnight for a food fight” (Skiba 29). Treating theses children like criminals for a food fight is not a reasonable way to address this situation. Often times, theses harsh punishments happen to children that do not even realize they are breaking any school rules. Some examples include students having butter knives in their lunchboxes, making drawings of guns or bombs, and chewing a pop tart in the shape of a gun. Most would think a little boy kissing the hand of his kindergartener “girlfriend” as endearing, sweet, and innocent but not the officials at an elementary school in Colorado Springs. They suspended this six-year-old child and accused him of sexual harassment. Children of that age do not even know what sexual harassment is. A thirteen year old from Wamsutta Middle School did not realize she was breaking any school rules when she brought a butter knife in her lunchbox to cut a pear, but she was suspended for one day. The use of zero tolerance is having a negative effect on students. These harsh policies cause children to distrust authority and as a result, they often become disengaged. “ Students who are suspended or expelled usually become disengaged from school and are at a greater risk for dropping out before graduation in other words zero tolerance forces exclusion upon students” (Findlay 119). Furthermore, these policies have caused students to drop out of school. . FINE A QUOTE BASED ON RESEARCH By far the worst result of these policies is students committing suicide. “Zero tolerance policies in Fairfax County Virginia, recently became the center of intense controversy when a successful student-athlete committed suicide after his removal from school for possession of a legal but controlled substance” (Skiba 29).
This decision makes it clear the most important thing for a school to do is to protect the students. It also states that the board of education, whose role is to oversee the schools, must make sure that the staff of the schools is protecting those children. This case highlights that long-term abuse can happen in schools if there are not clear policies or, if there are, that there is no one ensuring that those policies are
The proposed expulsions and suspensions from their disability behaviors deprived them of their right to a free and appropriate public education in accordance to the EHA. The Judge ordered the school district from making other disciplinary acts other than a two-to-five-day suspension against any disabled child for disability-related behaviors and ensured that the “stay-put” provision would be in place and no student would be removed. This went to the Ninth-Circuit appeal where the previous decision was affirmed and modified to allow up to a ten-day suspension.
Martinez, S. (2009). A system gone berserk: How are zero-tolerance policies really …..affecting schools? Preventing School Failure, 53(3), 153-157. Retrieved from …..http://search.proquest.com.ezproxylocal.library.nova.edu/docview/228530113?acco…..untid=6579
They help keep schools and students safe and provide a positive learning environment. This has idea has just been taken too far by school administrators (Wison, 2014). We live in a society where more and more rights have been given to juveniles which have also back fired on us. In days past schools could hand out discipline as well as parents, which in turn could put an end to minor behaviors, where now they are often allowed to advance into things worse, where school administrators see no other choice but to suspend and expel (Wison, 2014). Likewise, we cannot be suspending and expelling students at the drop of a hat because what they did may fall into a gray area, yes there are times when it is needed, but school administrators need to take the time to step back and look at the situation and stop overreacting (Wison, 2014). Suspension and expulsion results in missed classroom time, causing some students to fall so far behind they stop caring about the school work and drop out. Other students are being forced into the criminal justice system ending up with records that can haunt them for life. Eliminating the school-to-prison pipeline will allow these students who are likely to fall into its trap to be able to have a change at a successful life (Wison,
If you did not know, the zero tolerance policy is when students break school behavior rules and strict regulations created by the district or school and get severe consequences for it. Carla Amurao, the author of the article, “Fact Sheet: How Bad Is the School-to-Prison Pipeline?”, stated that “statistics reflect that these policies disproportionately target students of color”. Students of color are being affected so badly by this policy, that statistics show black students are 3 times more likely to get expelled than white students. Since these students are being expelled or arrested for breaking zero tolerance policy rules, they are missing valuable information in classes due to court hearings. But, some people argue that the zero tolerance policy is unfair to all students, making the education system equal for all to succeed. For example, a “2007 study by the Advancement Project and the Power U Center for Social Change says that for every 100 students who were suspended, 15 were Black, 7.9 were American Indian, 6.8 were Latino and 4.8 were white”. As you can see, the zero tolerance policy affects all races, making them miss their education because of certain consequences. Because the mindset of these people is that, if the zero-tolerance policy does not affect just one race or group of people, then the education system
Another major reason why juveniles are ending up in the juvenile justice system is because many schools have incorporate the zero tolerance policy and other extreme school disciplinary rules. In response to violent incidents in schools, such as the Columbine High School massacre, school disciplinary policies have become increasingly grave. These policies have been enacted at the school, district and state levels with the hopes of ensuring the safety of students and educators. These policies all rely on the zero tolerance policy. While it is understandable that protecting children and teachers is a priority, it is not clear that these strict policies are succeeding in improving the safety in schools.
The intent of this argumentative research paper, is to take a close look at school systems disciplinary policies and the effect they have on students. While most school systems in the nation have adopted the zero tolerance policies, there are major concerns that specific students could be targeted, and introduced into the criminal justice system based on these disciplinary policies. This research paper is intended to focus on the reform of zero tolerance policies, and minimizing the school to prison pipeline.
In the most recent years, the relationship between educational institutions and the juvenile justice system, which was once created to protect children, has displayed an ultimatum for minors through “zero tolerance” policies that result in sending individuals from school to prison to pipeline. Studies have shown that these policies are not beneficial to students or the educational environment that should be guaranteed to children. Opponents argue that the policies promote safety, but through this research it can be concluded that the policies actually increase danger. Studies demonstrate the factors that affect the enforcement of these policies which include media, the sociopolitical atmosphere, and the racial disproportionality, yet there are valid solutions for this issue that can be explored.
Following the Columbine tragedy in 1999, “school systems across the nation introduced the zero-tolerance policies aimed at the curtailment of harmful student behaviors” (Noll, 2014, p. 295). The original focus of the policies was to eliminate the use/carrying of weapons but soon after spread to restricting drugs and medication (2014). By 2006 95% of the U.S. public schools had adopted the zero-tolerance policies and more than half of them reported taking significant action against students, many of which resulted in expulsion (2014). While the zero-tolerance polices were originally welcomed by all members of a community as a means of promoting and keeping a safer environment-- as of late many individuals are questioning the relevance of some actions and some school officials (2014).
There have been many cases where zero-tolerance has gray areas and can be too strict. In “Zero Tolerance for School Violence: Is Mandatory Punishment in Schools Unfair?” Kathy Koch, an assistant managing editor, specializing in education and social-policy issues writes:
The zero tolerance policies were implemented with the intended purpose to punish juveniles who display unacceptable behavior and dissuade them from committing the act in the future. The policies are based on deterrence theory. Deterrence theory states that an individual is capable of making rational choices to partake in behavior, therefore punishment which is implemented with swiftness, severity, and certainty will cause the individual to change their delinquent behavior (Schram and Tibbetts 2014). This is the foundation to the school-to-prison pipeline as one receives punishment directly after the incident occurs, the punishment is harsh as one is suspended, expelled, or adjudicated, and there is certainty that the offense will be processed.
The Zero-tolerance policies criminalize minor infractions of school rules, while officers in school’s lead to students being criminalized
The answer, it turns out, is yes.” This experiment should be enforced into all districts around america. “...nearly 3.5 million students in kindergarten through high school - was suspended at least once in the 2011-12 academic year…”. Most of the these suspensions have been for some type of confrontation or mix up. “African-American students are hit hardest.
When people think of the term “juvenile delinquency” they may think of the extreme regulations some schools have begun to enact upon individual students in response to major issues such as bullying and school shootings. Criminal prosecution seems to have become the normality in many bullying cases these days as some students can find themselves being suspended for making guns out of paper, or even drawing a gun. Though these “no tolerance” policies that some schools have come up with in order to prevent delinquency from happening may help deter these negative behaviors in some circumstances they are in no way a practical solution, overall.
“Principals must be able to balance the school’s interest in maintaining a safe and orderly environment against the rights of individual students to be free from unreasonable discipline” (Hachiya, Shoop, and Dunklee, 2014, p. 145). This is a delicate balance to be sure, but one that is the responsibility of an administrator. Students have constitutional rights to free speech and expression, as well as the right to due process. This is very true with suspension and expulsion. Due process is very important here as well. A hearing must be held, and all parts of the Pupil Fair Dismissal Act must be followed.