Zero tolerance policies fail to consider individual circumstances in schools

Zero Tolerance in Schools

What if your child went fishing with his father the previous evening and forgot to take his Swiss Army knife out of his back pack before going to school the next morning? What if he opened his back pack and the knife fell out and his teacher marched him to the principal's office who then suspended him for several weeks over an honest mistake? A scenario such as this is similar to an actual incident that happened to a child in Georgia. The only difference is that in the real life situation, the child ended up being arrested and is now on probation for an honest mistake (http://www.ajc.com/news/georgia-politics-elections/zero-tolerance-in-schools-301284.html). This is what could happen at a zero tolerance school. Zero tolerance in schools punishes any child who breaks even the smallest part of the rule whether it was an accident or not. For this reason, zero tolerance should not be an all or nothing policy. Each case should be examined on an individual basis before any harsh punishments are imposed.

II. Position

Zero tolerance has become popular in many schools due to the recent rash of horrific, violent incidents such as Columbine. In light of this and other violent incidents occurring in grades schools, high schools and colleges policies need to be set in place to curtail and eliminate these acts of senseless violence. The zero tolerance policy is enforced in many schools across the nation, but we have to question whether or not this is the best way to solve the issues that our schools are facing.

Zero tolerance is not an effective means of controlling the violence in schools because it is a blanket policy which does not take into account other factors. For instance, the example mentioned above should not have warranted such a severe punishment. Those in charge of the policy must take each incident on a case by case basis. The offense as well as the person involved should be examined carefully. If a child has never been in any type of trouble and commits a small infraction against any of the school policies, he should not be arrested and placed on probation. What this is doing is sending a message to the child that he is in fact a bad person and he may then begin to act out in an anti-social manner because he believes that this is what is expected of him.

According to Dupper, African-American and Hispanic children are suspended and expelled from school at higher rates than white children and affects them tremendously and contributes to the high dropout rate. He says that these policies only serve to criminalize students who are in situations that could be handled by school administrators and not law enforcement officials (67).

Given this information, the zero tolerance policies may be viewed as being unfair to most students, but in particular African-American and Hispanic students. Many of these students come from a different home environment than their white counterparts. Many are from single parent homes and may not have the proper guidance that other students have. A zero tolerance policy placed on these children will send the message to them that they are criminals and will be punished as such.

If the student has committed an act of violence that is worthy of severe punishment, then the zero tolerance policy is okay. but, if the child is involved in an incident such as a food fight, he should not be arrested or have a police record for such a minor infraction of the school's policies.

IV. Conclusion

In order to regain some type of balance and safety in schools, tough policies need to be enacted. This has almost become necessary given the magnitude of violence in schools nowadays. However, the policies such as zero tolerance need not be so inflexible that a minor infraction would cause an otherwise good kid to now have a police record. Perhaps zero tolerance in schools should be revised to become low tolerance in schools. We deserve it to our children to give them a fair chance in order that they may become productive citizens as they grow up.