Pushed Out Teaching Tolerance
Pushed Out
Number 36: Fall 2009
Eight year-old “Jenny” was suspended from her third-grade class for two days for bringing a pair of cuticle scissors to open the wrapper on her school breakfast. Under the school’s zero tolerance policy, Jenny’s teacher believed she had no choice but to report Jenny to the principal. Humiliated and traumatized, Jenny missed two days of school, and now has a suspension on her permanent school record.
“Joseph” was 13 when the bullying against him started. Under his school’s strict discipline rules, all students involved in a fight received the same punishment, regardless of who started it. After several fights that resulted in repeated, multi-day, out-of-school suspensions, Joseph fell further and further behind, failed the seventh grade, and became increasingly alienated from his school. He eventually dropped out.
These stories are all too typical of what is happening in schools across America. Significant numbers of students are being pushed out of school as a result of “zero tolerance” school discipline policies. While nobody questions the need to keep our schools safe, teachers, students, and parents are questioning the methods we are using in pursuit of that goal.
Initially enacted to counter violent behavior and drug use, zero tolerance school disciplinary policies have expanded to cover more minor misbehavior. As a result, the U.S. has experienced dramatic increases in the number of students suspended, expelled and referred to law enforcement for school-based incidents.
These practices are paving the way for higher dropout rates and involvement in the criminal justice system, a pathway often referred to as the “school-to-prison pipeline.” Likewise, these practices have been shown to worsen the climates of our schools, leading to teacher burnout.
Zero tolerance is a failed approach. Zero tolerance policies — policies that mandate predetermined consequences for rule infractions, regardless of the circumstances — were initially aimed at making schools safe. The best way to prevent serious violence at school, the theory went, was to ban any and all weapons or threats of violence, and to accept no excuses.
Over the past decade, however, many school districts have enacted harsh disciplinary consequences — suspensions, expulsions, alternative schools and referrals to law enforcement — for a broad array of student actions. These “one-size-fits-all” policies often apply not only to possession of weapons, drugs and alcohol, but also to possession of medications legitimately possessed by students, school supplies and common objects such as nail clippers and scissors. Zero tolerance policies have also been applied to behaviors like truancy, tardiness and vague catch-all categories such as “insubordination” and “disrespect.”
Pushed Out
Number 36: Fall 2009
Eight year-old “Jenny” was suspended from her third-grade class for two days for bringing a pair of cuticle scissors to open the wrapper on her school breakfast. Under the school’s zero tolerance policy, Jenny’s teacher believed she had no choice but to report Jenny to the principal. Humiliated and traumatized, Jenny missed two days of school, and now has a suspension on her permanent school record.
“Joseph” was 13 when the bullying against him started. Under his school’s strict discipline rules, all students involved in a fight received the same punishment, regardless of who started it. After several fights that resulted in repeated, multi-day, out-of-school suspensions, Joseph fell further and further behind, failed the seventh grade, and became increasingly alienated from his school. He eventually dropped out.
These stories are all too typical of what is happening in schools across America. Significant numbers of students are being pushed out of school as a result of “zero tolerance” school discipline policies. While nobody questions the need to keep our schools safe, teachers, students, and parents are questioning the methods we are using in pursuit of that goal.
Initially enacted to counter violent behavior and drug use, zero tolerance school disciplinary policies have expanded to cover more minor misbehavior. As a result, the U.S. has experienced dramatic increases in the number of students suspended, expelled and referred to law enforcement for school-based incidents.
These practices are paving the way for higher dropout rates and involvement in the criminal justice system, a pathway often referred to as the “school-to-prison pipeline.” Likewise, these practices have been shown to worsen the climates of our schools, leading to teacher burnout.
Zero tolerance is a failed approach. Zero tolerance policies — policies that mandate predetermined consequences for rule infractions, regardless of the circumstances — were initially aimed at making schools safe. The best way to prevent serious violence at school, the theory went, was to ban any and all weapons or threats of violence, and to accept no excuses.
Over the past decade, however, many school districts have enacted harsh disciplinary consequences — suspensions, expulsions, alternative schools and referrals to law enforcement — for a broad array of student actions. These “one-size-fits-all” policies often apply not only to possession of weapons, drugs and alcohol, but also to possession of medications legitimately possessed by students, school supplies and common objects such as nail clippers and scissors. Zero tolerance policies have also been applied to behaviors like truancy, tardiness and vague catch-all categories such as “insubordination” and “disrespect.”