The Trouble With ‘Zero Tolerance’

[groovedaddy]

Congress took a reasonable step in 1994 when it required states receiving federal education money to expel students who brought guns onto school property, but states and localities overreacted, as they so often do. They enacted “zero tolerance” policies under which children are sometimes arrested for profanity, talking back, shoving matches and other behavior that would once have been resolved with detention or meetings with the students’ parents.

This arrest-first policy has been disastrous for young people, who are significantly more likely to drop out and experience long-term problems once they become entangled in the juvenile justice system. It has led to egregious racial profiling, with black and Hispanic students being shipped off to court at a higher rate than white students. And it has been a waste of time for the police to haul off children to the courts when they should be protecting the public from real criminals.

School officials who want to back away from the failed zero tolerance policy are looking to a farsighted model developed in Clayton County, Ga., a fast-growing enclave south of Atlanta. Its juvenile courts were nearly overwhelmed by students referred from their schools — mainly for minor offenses like fistfights and disruptive conduct.

Juvenile court officials met with the schools and explained the dangers of criminalizing what are essentially normal childhood behaviors. They also helped to retrain school counselors and cooperated with the schools to create a three-strikes system for dealing with minor offenses.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/11/opinion/11wed2.html?th&emc=th

[endless october]

1. zero tolerance is a failure.

it excludes common sense. zero tolerance policies should be ended immediately.

[unblock]

2. "zero tolerance" was so obviously doomed to failure

textbook case of why not to build entire policies out of mindless slogans.

people have been suspended for bringing kid's scissors to art class, and so on.
dumb, dumb, dumb.

[C_Lawyer09]

3. Unforseen results

I just finished just over four years as an Army Recruiter. By far one of the most frustrating aspects of an already hard and misunderstood job, was dealing with strange, overblown, and misapplied charges levied against students by overreactive educators. There are so many examples that were ludicrous and/or mind boggling. I find it very ironic that many whom are supposed to be intelligent, empathetic, pro-kid, decide to involve authorities when totally unneccesary. e.g. three twelve year old boys talking about a notional bank robbery and how they would conduct it. Fantasy role play crap that most adolescents engage in when bored. A fellow student relates some of the conversation to a librarian whom calls the police. They are charged with felony communication of a terrorist threat. After the fact, school administrators write statements to the effect that there was no credibility to any of the aformentioned conversation. End result, no secret clearance or top secret for the smart kid who wanted to be a crypto-linguist. Stupid, just like the kid who is labled as a sex offender forever because he had consentual sex with his girlfriend who was a minor, 18/17. It's hard not to lose faith in our system when so much seems out of whack.

[sui generis]

4. it should be renamed zero intelligence

I encourage profanity, irreverence, talking back and any other behavior that substitutes for violence and physical acting out.

I also think that random drug testing is a hoot, with something like one in five thousand students testing positive. I wonder who is profiting from THAT; but it certainly isn't the state and school budget.

[bob4460]

5. I know the piss test my kid for THE BETA CLUB

HOW FUCKING STUPID IS THAT???????????? She wants to be in it ,I told her to not give up her rights but she wants it to look good for college,but my son told them to stick it where the sun don't shine and i support both of them LOL.

[Jkid]

6. The root zero tolerance laws started with the Gun Free Schools Act

But due to the something I called State's Initiative, they made laws that exceed the federal law by requiring mandatory one-year expulsions for things that can be handled by parents such as for vandalism, possession any bladed article, threats, etc.

Congress can easily restrict this farce by amending the Gun Free Schools Act by restricting these mandatory expulsions only to gun possession on school property.