Zero Tolerance Policies in American Schools Essay

In an effort to maintain peace, safety and a disciplined environment conducive to effective teaching and learning, many schools have adopted the zero tolerance policy. This philosophy was originally created in the 1990’s as an approach towards drug enforcement to address the rampant use, possession and sales of drugs in schools (Jones, 2013). Today, this policy is used to mandate the application of pre-determined consequences of violation of stated rules. These rules may pertain to a number of issues;

| Zero Tolerance for Ineffective Zero Tolerance Policies | Can Zero Tolerance be Tolerated? | | Terrance Baker | LAWS310 | 12/14/2009 | Students are being handcuffed, arrested and expelled for possession of a butter knife or water gun, punishment that disproportionately targets African-American students, students being alienated and never returning to school after being suspended or expelled are all byproducts of the zero tolerance policies adopted by their school district. School

Zero Tolerance Policies: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly Schools are institutions where acquisition of knowledge is fostered in a nurturing milieu. In 1994, when Congress passed “The Gun-Free Schools Act”, also known as the “Zero Tolerance Policy” by many, it was intended to provide students and educators with a safe environment conducive to learning. Nonetheless, “the real result of these policies is not safer schools, but significant adverse effects, such as severe disruption of students’ academic

1980s, American school systems have been focused on using zero tolerance policies to remove supposed threats to schools from the education system. Zero tolerance policies present a large problem; they remove due process from the discipline process and by doing so violates the rights to a fair trial. Is this the purpose of the education system in America to punish students and potentially ruin futures or to nurture and improve the potential of students’ lives? While zero tolerance policies do treat

male prisoners were African American even though African Americans constituted only 12.4% of the United States‟ population in 2006. These data suggest that Overrepresentation of African American Males in Exclusionary Discipline African American males are three times more likely to be incarcerated than non-African American males (U.S. Department of Justice, 2007). Zeiderberg & Schiraldi (2002) suggests that 52% of African American males who do not complete high school have been incarcerated at least

Policies, at micro, mezzo, and macro levels, affect our schools and students every day and constitute the foundation of educational standards in North American schools; to say that students are unaffected on a micro level would be dismissive, ignorant, and narrow minded. Additionally, disregarding existing policies and practices in educational institutions and their potential interactions and effects with new policies and practices would be a grievous oversight in the decision-making process. Zero

With its original intentions of enforcing punishment for weapons, drugs, and severe violent incidents, zero tolerance has evolved to a very critical policy that arguably pushes more minority boys out of school and into the criminal justice system. As many refuse to try to connect present day issues of race within law enforcement, this issue is a pressing issue for the social work profession. Battling against a social injustice issue as such, that presents with so many disproportionate, becomes difficult

In the article Zero Tolerance Laws Are Unfair the author talks about a girl who gave an ibuprofen to her friend and was suspended for “dealing drugs”. Zero-tolerance policies are to blame. Zero-tolerance policies started to become mainstream in the mid-1990’s in an effort to get students who brought either drugs, guns or alcohol to school suspended or expelled. “A zero tolerance policy is a school or district policy that mandates predetermined consequences or punishments for specific offenses that

Schools are becoming more detrimental to our society as time continues to carry on, however not quite the reasons why one would think. The new upcoming law of the zero tolerance policy was built to create a safer academic environment, but due to the circumstances; it has gotten quite out of hand. The policy is now seen as a direct pipeline toward juvenile/prisons, an increase in irrational suspensions, and unfairly misdirected to minority groups. The main consequence in the zero tolerance policy

Examining Zero Tolerance School districts across America institute sets of the policy referred to as zero tolerance. These policies allow schools to punish students without giving students access to due process for subjects ranging from drugs and guns to violence and cyberbullying. The rationale behind these policies are supposed to make the school district, campuses, faculty, staff, and students safer. Interestingly, studies show that zero-tolerance policies have not raised school safety. Consequently