Zeroing in on 'Zero Tolerance'

From:Internet   Author:Admin   Time:2007-04-19   Font: [big center small]  

Aug. 15, 2001 -- Stunned by tragic school shootings such as Columbine, school districts around the nation have adopted get-tough zero tolerance policies to address potential violence and other discipline problems.

But a growing number of students punished harshly for relatively minor offenses has turned many education experts away from zero tolerance and towards increased flexibility in discipline.

Zero tolerance policies usually require automatic expulsion, suspension, or referral to law enforcement authorities for certain types of violations of school conduct codes. In many school districts, there have been no case-by-case reviews to make sure punishments fit the crimes, but that may be changing.

Federal law requires that schools impose a mandatory one-year suspension on students who bring a gun on school grounds. But many schools have also adopted stiff penalties for students bringing other weapons, possessing drugs, and other violations.

Unfortunately, questions including defining what a weapon is, and what qualifies as a threat, have proved difficult for schools to address easily or wisely.

For example, Bob Schwartz, executive director of the nonprofit Juvenile Law Center, tells WebMD, "We see a lot of special ed[ucation] kids -- kids with mental illness -- being arrested and expelled for behavior that is clearly a [symptom] of their disability."

Schwartz says, "My favorite of all time is the 6-year-old in Pittsburgh who was suspended for having an axe on his fireman's costume for the first grade Halloween party."

Other cases abound. Last year, an 11-year-old Georgia girl was suspended for having a "Tweety Bird" key chain. Just this month, the Washington Post reported about police taking two 8-year-old New Jersey boys into custody for making terrorist threats with a "weapon" -- a gun made from a piece of paper.

Pam Riley, executive director of Students Against Violence Everywhere (SAVE), tells WebMD, "You can't just laugh it off, you can't just say they are clowning around and joking. You have to address the problem, but I don't think that that needs to be addressed as a legal matter."

Data from the U.S. Education Department indicate that schools have been getting safer, with fewer reported crimes and students carrying weapons.

But "Zero Tolerance, Zero Evidence," an August 2000 report from Russell Skiba of the Indiana Education Policy Center, claimed that there was little evidence that the rise of zero tolerance has improved student behavior and school safety. Indeed, he said, suspension and expulsion appear to lead to further suspension and expulsion and even to school dropout.

The National Education Association has also raised doubts about the policies, noting that kids have been expelled for taking aspirin and bringing fingernail clippers to school. Jerald Newberry, executive director of the NEA's Health Information Network, tells WebMD, "It's not so much the zero tolerance policies as it is the implementation of them." The policies, he says, almost always set schools up for more problems.

Earlier this year, the American Bar Association voted to oppose zero tolerance measures that fail to take into account the specific circumstances involved with a student's violation of a code of conduct.

Joanne McDaniel, acting director of the Center for Preventing School Violence, tells WebMD, "A lot of schools jumped on the bandwagon of zero tolerance particularly after Columbine." She says, "Schools wanted a [policy] that they could put before a school board very quickly and into a student manual, without stopping and thinking about how to do it well."

According to McDaniel, "It's not going to be a policy that makes a school safe. It's got to be the people who apply the policies, and the programs." She says that schools are beginning to take a "more thoughtful" approach to discipline rules.

Similarly, Riley says, "We've gone too far in our zeal for safer schools." At the same time, she says, "I think we are seeing a move to more flexibility, not in allowing inappropriate behavior but in how it can be handled. Zero tolerance never meant that you couldn't use some sort of reason."

Schwartz agrees that a backlash is underway against zero tolerance policies. But since they are largely under local control, he says, "The problem is that there are roughly 15,000 school districts in the country."

So, what should parents do, if they are concerned about school policies?

Riley says, "Be knowledgeable. Ask your principal what the school safety plan is, and what are the procedures when there are violations of the school code of conduct."

McDaniel notes that some schools have erred by simply sending a code of conduct to parents for their signature.

Schwartz recommends: "Organize with other parents. Write to superintendents and school principals. Parents should say, 'We're not against school discipline, but we're for common sense in school discipline.'"

"A group of parents has incredible power," Newberry says. "If you have 10 or 20 parents joined with a common message to a school board, you will get a policy change."

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