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Zero Tolerance Policy Examples

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Zero-Tolerance Policy
“The epidemic of school violence has reached into the very heart of America.It is no longer the story of the big city or the ghetto.The infection of violence has found its way into our small towns and rural communities. It is everywhere in our country.” (Seldes, 1996)
Sheldon critically examines the school-to-prison pipeline as well as the zero-tolerance policy in respects to one another. The Zero-tolerance policy reflects that the school system is tough on crime. This increases the rates in which youth become criminalized at alarming rates than needed. “More minor offenses (or no offenses at all) are now processed formally by the police and the juvenile court.” (Sheldon, 2006) Examples include: (1) A five-year prison sentence for a 17-year old Texas high school basketball player who “threw an elbow” to the head of an opposing player in a basketball game; (2) two six-year old children suspended for three days for playing “cops and robbers” (pretending their fingers were guns and going “bang, bang” toward other children); (3) Suspension of a girl who gave a friend a Nuprin, for ‘dealing drugs’; (4) A 14-year old boy was charged with by school police with a felony for throwing a deadly missile, which turned out to be a Halloween “trick” of throwing an egg. He was taken away in handcuffs and put in juvenile detention.” (Sheldon, 2006) (5) In September 2010 Grant County, Wisconsin, authorities accused a 6-year old boy of first-degree sexual assault of a

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