Letter to Educators

ZERO TOLERANCE OF BEHAVIORS NOT FOR KIDS

Dear Colleagues,

Over the past several weeks, I have been immersing myself in every bit of information I could find on the prevalence and impact of zero tolerance policies in our education system. Given the fact that over 90% of American schools have some form of zero tolerance policy, I am sure you are all are on some level familiar with them and most likely aware of some of the general concerns.  My purpose in writing this letter is to hopefully initiate a dialogue about how we can make schools safe without sacrificing our core principles.

It is always scary when people start talking about the core principles of a society because the idea that a society holds core principles is a loaded one to begin with. America is a mixture of diverse ethnicities, nationalities, faiths and cultures making identification of her core values a challenge. Nevertheless, America has a rich history embedded with statements aspiring to be a land of opportunity, equality, and of liberty.

In his piece “:Have Zero Tolerance Policies Turned into a Nightmare? The American Dream’s Promise of Equal Educational Opportunity Grounded in Brown v. Board of Education, Avarita L. Hanson makes the case that equally embedded in the American story is a recognition of the fact that education is the single most important bridge to the realization of the American dream.

Now juxtapose that against a policy of zero tolerance. For those that are not familiar, zero tolerance policies in schools are regulations in which a prescribed consequence is given for a particular type of prohibited behavior without regard to the context. Traditionally they exist as policies mandating suspension or expulsion for students who engage in certain behaviors or bring banned substances to schools.

Zero tolerance policies appear to have started out as a get tough approach to drug policy. Eventually schools began to catch on at which point Congress eventually codified zero  tolerance policies into the law generating a nationwide explosion in the policies which have expanded in breadth from initially dealing with firearms, to all weapons, to drugs, to alcohol, and down the line to the point that students in some instances have been suspended for bringing toys to school, for disobeying school officials, to bringing pagers and cell phones to class.

The new trend of using exclusion as the primary means of forcing kids into submitting to school policies is a dangerous one for the youth affected as well as the society at large. To deny a student access to a quality education is a serious step that we take all too lightly today. Given that the students who are struggling the most academically are also the students who are most often the victims of exclusion based disciplinary approaches, it is should be clear that school exclusion hurts the most vulnerable students. Perhaps this would be a necessary evil if we were talking about students who pose a real threat to their peers, but the truth of the matter is that in most cases the students subjected to zero tolerance policies pose no real threat at all.           

In their report, “The Dark Side of Zero Tolerance: Can Punishment Lead to Safe Schools”, Russ SKiba and Reece Peterson write, “Data on suspension consistently shows that, as the NCES has reported, referrals for drugs, weapons and gang related behaviors constitute but a small minority of office referrals leading to suspension. Fighting among students is the sinle most frequent reason for suspension, but the majority of school suspensions occur in response to relatively minor incidents that do not threaten school safet., At the middle school level, disrespect and disnbedience are among the most common reasons for suspension, and a significant proportion of suspensions are for tardiness and truancy.” (Skiba & Peterson, 2006 p. 7)

Couple that with the fact that school exclusion practices disproportionally come down against students of color for the most minor offenses while white students are frequently suspended for more serious ones, and some central questions begin to emerge. Can we really justify the indiscriminate use of school exclusion as a disciplinary technique? Does it make sense to take our most vulnerable students and to further stunt their progress by kicking them out of the classroom and sending them to the streets? Where is the wisdom of responding to truancy and tardiness mandating even more time away from the classroom and away from the instruction? Teachers, administrators and parents should take a cold hard look at our zero tolerance policies and ask ourselves, “How does this policy help our hurt the young people entrusted to our care?”

            It is time we started looking at a more comprehensive approach to behavior management beginning with a recognition that all children should be entitled to a basic education, and that it is in the interest of society at large to ensure that students have access to a basic education regardless of their behavior. This is not to say that we allow all behaviors to go unchecked, it is simply a recognition that when we use expulsion to enforce desired behaviors we fall short of the high calling to provide equal access to all students. A proper approach to behavior management includes high expectations, clear standards, preventative techniques and the flexibility to make adjustments given the specific needs of the student(s) involved.

            Zero tolerance policies as we now them violate students right to an education and fail to live up to our duty to society to prepare citizens who can be productive and make a living for themselves and their families. Zero tolerance policies fail to teach students to function as part of a democratic society, instead teaching them that when going gets tough authoritarianism - forcing people into subjection by brute force or the denial of their civil liberties - is the prescribed means of reaction.

            We can do better than zero tolerance. We can and we must if we are going to live up to our own stated goal of equal educational opportunities for all children.