Are Schools Safer Now?
Has Zero Tolerance Policies Eliminated Campus Danger?
Zero Tolerance policies were adopted by amajorty of American schools to deal with violence and anti-social student behavior in 1997. Has the policy improved safety?
In 1994, the Federal Gun Free Act was passed to ensure that students who attend public schools would be safe while attending school. By 1997, a majority of American school districts across the nation adopted a still highly controversial policy called “zero tolerance.” The zero tolerance policy was adopted by schools nationwide to address the tide of rising violence on school campuses. The zero tolerance provision was initiated by school districts to curb student anti-social behavior that ranged from bringing weapons to school (guns and bombs) to drugs.
But has the zero tolerance policy made American school campuses safer for students? Instead of school administrators and school boards deciding on incorporating rules that would address individual student infractions against school policies, many school districts decided to opt for and adopt the zero tolerance policy to address myriad discipline problems that occur in all schools.
For example: Zero Tolerance, once adopted by a school district, cannot take into account a students age when meting out discipline for violations. First and second graders have been suspended or expelled from school due to the fact that they may have played Cowboys and Indians on the school playground during recess (Redbook, May 2001). Young female students have been suspended from school for bringing Midol to school for cramps or plastic butter knives to spread condiments on bread for lunch. The problem with the zero tolerance policy in academia is that the policy champions “a one size fits all solution to schools problems” (CNN.com 2001). And of course common sense screams that every problem that arises in a diverse school environment should also have diverse means of addressing and dealing with those problems.
The positive or negative effects of zero tolerance policies on students and school safety are currently being closely monitored nationwide from school district personnel to legislators. Entities like the ACLU and certain school districts in Rhode Island and other states are in fact reconsidering zero tolerance and the effects it has had on their students and their school campuses. “Lawmakers in several states say the strict policies in schools have resulted in many punishments that lack common sense, and are seeking to loosen the restrictions” (Associated Press, June 16 2007). Most people or organizations that speak out against zero tolerance policies point to the obvious lack of common sense that is not being exercised when zero tolerance is the only policy employed by school districts to mete out discipline. Clearly there is marked difference between a six year old bringing a plastic knife to school versus a sixteen year old arriving at school with a machete tucked lightly under an arm?
Unfortunately, the supporters of this policy will point to the laxity of liberal morality and dredge up “success” stories of schools that employ zero tolerance in inner city schools to bolster the idea that it’s okay to use tools that endorse non-thinking in a school environment. (Daily Mail, February 25, 2004) .And of course practicing zero tolerance is the exact opposite of what is supposed to logically occur in any learning environment. Since when is it okay to suspend the useful habit of thought to embrace a thoughtless policy that negates the very foundation of education?
