Zero Tolerance Policy

With the creation of the zero tolerance policy, it changed the way student are being disciplined. In the 1990’s, in fear of the increasing crime rate, The United States Congress created a law that allowed public schools to enforce strict disciplinary policies for misbehaving students (Mental Health America). The zero tolerance policy states: “[the policy] mandates predetermined consequences or punishments for specific offenses that are intended to be applied regardless of the seriousness of the behavior, mitigating circumstances, or situational context”

From the beginning, the zero tolerance policies have been reactionary policies to problems that have other root causes that cannot be solved by criminalizing every action that falls outside of the law, and by mandating punishment for all school violations regardless of the situation or circumstance, schools systems have created larger educational problems than they have solved in their reaction to some very unfortunate school shootings.

A social reformer, a civil philanthropist, and a judge by the name of James(Jim) Gray, strongly believes that no matter how loose or strict prosecutors are on drug offenders the war on drugs is going to continue until the United States can realize that the only way to solve the drug addiction problem in America is to realize that we must rehabilitate and treat drug offenders and addicts in order to prevent and eliminate drug related violence and crime(Gray, J. P. 2011. pp. 19-20). Judge Gray continues on to state that we must see and treat drug users as human beings, which according to judge Gray most Americans do not do this. Judge Gray stated that the zero tolerance policy that we have here in the United States allows little to no room

What is Zero Tolerance law? In all 50 states plus the District of Columbia, it is illegal for people under the age of 21 years old to purchase or have possession of alcohol. It is illegal for anybody who is under the influence of alcohol (normally 0.08 percent or higher blood – alcohol concentration) to operate any motor vehicles especially a car, that’s why all the 50 states have adopted a law that can punish those individuals who decide to drive under the influence of alcohol or DUI (driving under the influence) offenses to justice and that law is Zero Tolerance Law. However, the Zero Tolerance Law fuses more on individuals who are under the age of 21 who might operate motor vehicles under the influence of alcohol with even a small amount

In school zero-tolerance policies are intended to eliminate behaviors deemed as intolerable, such as violence, bullying, or having a weapon. But these policies are useless and unneeded because they cannot be used until after the damage has been done. Often times the intolerable behavior becomes more prevalent when the types of policies are put into place.

In recent years, people everywhere have started to question and criticize zero tolerance policies. People are beginning to realize that zero tolerance policies (as strict as those practiced now) do not belong in universities or colleges. Students do not benefit from these policies and are often hurt by them. This happens through students being punished for minuscule acts, disproportional punishments, and the schools’ obliviousness to the plethora of other less abrasive options available.

Zero-tolerance policies allow for discriminatory bias, drastic damages to a student’s record, and ill-perceived notions of things considered acceptable in the real world.

The school to prison pipeline through zero-tolerance policies is a fairly new subject in the public education community. The introduction of these policies began in the 1980’s as a solution to counteract the ever-growing drug rise the era was having. Johanna Wald (2003) defines, ““the prison track,” and the “school- to-prison pipeline.” These phrases refer to a journey through school that is increasingly punitive and isolating for its travelers—many of whom will be placed in restrictive special education programs, repeatedly suspended, held back in grade, and banished to alternative, “outplacements” before finally dropping or getting “pushed out” of school altogether.” Research on this subject comes from two branches: sociology and psychology.

Additionally, there was no scrutiny towards the financial firms in Lower Manhattan in the city as they bend and broke the rules. It was clear that the zero tolerance policy was only targeting the average citizens while Wall Street benefited from the policy created while engaging in criminal offenses. The working theory towards firms was that their individual liberty were beneficial when used collectively while for an average individual their liberty were corrosive when used together. Therefore, the need to target the young, poor and homeless proved highly beneficial to law enforcers. It was not until the market collapsed taking Wall Street with it and dragged the nation in a deep recession that it has yet to fully recover from; law enforcement

The stories "No More" and “Zero Tolerance for Abuse" are very similar and different. They are both interesting stories about women that get abused by their partners which may be their husband or boyfriend. It is an issue that is dealt with everyday in life, but we do not know about many things that go into this issue. In both stories, there will be details about the issues there will be similarities and differences.

“Zero-Tolerance Policy” is the leading cause of most disobedient students, the reason why most students drop out of school and the cause of insubordination among students. The Zero-Tolerance Policy is a policy that, like the name states, has zero-tolerance for anything. Anything seen as a threat or anything that sends an inappropriate message towards the community is considered bad and the student could get arrested, suspended and/or expelled. The Zero-Tolerance policy applies to any student, regardless if a student has any health problems and falls to any student between the ages of 4-18. It could also apply to a student who could have the lowest amount of infractions possible. They say that removing students is necessary for learning, but, in doing that, they hurt the student as well. Some places don’t provide alternative places for students to learn at, really taking away their education. If it really ensures a safe and orderly environment for children, then there should be proof. There is no actual proof that it makes students feel safer (Wahl, "School Zero Tolerance Policies Do Harm" par. 1). It alienates the student and makes the student feel as if they are the “odd-one out”. Due to the injustices that this creates, the Zero-Tolerance Policy is ineffective, because it teaches students injustice, lowers students academic rates and minor offences are punished.

Education is a fundamental tool within our society and yet we are denying communities this access through harmful policies. Birthed from Ronald Reagan during an era of The War on Drugs, zero-tolerance was adapted into educational policy through more punitive measures such as higher rates of suspension. Through such policies, the school environment has drastically changed. In some instances, it has become one that mirrors more of a prison. Based on how the U.S. society views criminality, we see how race instantly becomes a factor in education as well. It is here inequality is perpetuated for Black and Brown youth, negatively affected by zero-tolerance at exponentially larger rates than their white counterparts. Educational institutions are pushing Black and Brown youth out of school and into prisons. Both lack of formal education and criminal records have shown to decrease the chances of social mobility, and it is here where zero-tolerance can be seen as an extension of the prison industrial complex. Otherwise known as another form of racialized social control of Black and Brown bodies.

Zero tolerance policies are prevalent and need to be enforced at all times, I don't believe in looking at this as a case by case situation. when it is done that was it can be a situation were the one in charges is making a judgement call and this is were we don' t need this type of call. in my opinion the schools should have spoken with the students and parents to advise just what the rules and plans are for such should this happen in the school, this should have occurred during the first week of school. in addition from the beginning it show me that the young man was not careful with the gift, because this not something on just sit anywhere and no think about again.

The zero tolerance policy has become a national controversy in regards to the solid proven facts that it criminalizes children and seems to catch kids who have no intention of doing harm. Although, there has been substantial evidence to prove that the policies enforced in many schools have gone far beyond the extreme to convict children of their wrongdoing. The punishments for the act of misconduct have reached a devastating high, and have pointed students in the wrong direction. Despite the opinions of administrators and parents, as well as evidence that zero tolerance policies have deterred violence in many public and private schools, the rules of conviction and punishment are unreasonable and should be modified.

Each student would be evaluated based on their record, where and when the incident occurred, and what the circumstances were surrounding the incident. If a student was relatively good kid with no past disciplinary action history, the school management was much more likely to have a punishment that actually taught him or her something. But times changed and education environment in public schools also changed considerably in recent years. Zero tolerance policies are concerning issues that are thought to be extremely dangerous in today’s society. The three main focuses of these policies are incidences of violence, illegal drugs, and alcohol. Zero tolerance treats children as if they were adults and takes away the ‘innocence of a child’ philosophy. This strategy could be extremely safe to the lives of the good students and everything happens by treating all offenses dealing with the aforementioned issues as well as all students equally whether the student has had a flawless record or not.