Zero Tolerance In Education

The enactment of Zero Tolerance policies and No Child Left Behind widened the chasm between the students, teachers, administration and those that govern, at any level. Another arena that both these policies remain a constant is in the political landscape. As noted education is usually at the basis of every political platform, the issue of school violence and student achievement resonates at every level of education. Education, as a system, somehow stays under attack in some way, shape or form across the political landscape even outside the election cycle. By framing schools as violent, unsafe places, elected officials get a ground swell of support, particularly when unions and school board oversight are considered as part of their platform …show more content…
As “punishment and policing have come to at least compete with, if not replace, teaching as the dominant modes of socialization (Simon 210). In face there is “data on a number of indicators of school climate have shown […] that schools with higher rates of school suspension and expulsion appear to have less satisfactory ratings of school climate” (qtd., Bickel and Qualls 1980). One of the largest failures of Zero Tolerance though has been the merge of education and the criminal justice systems, where the “highly authoritarian and mechanistic model” (Simon 209) is now utilized in both. Despite the fact that violent crime occurs in only a handful of schools, still policies adversely affecting the education of children are put in place and enforced at the youngest ages. The fact that Zero Tolerance policies exist in preschools is absurd, at best. When we base an entire philosophy for discipline on what applies to ten percent of the entire student population, we have essential made crime the basis for all actions (Simon 213). It seems that we have all become at …show more content…
For infractions that used to be addressed by the teacher or a visit with the principal, students are given in-school suspension. In some cases, this is simply for an action deemed to be disobedience. In-school suspensions are not held in a regular classroom, there is still separation and the surroundings often less than appropriate for a classroom environment (Simon 224). Due to the harsh nature of the policy “zero tolerance policies have led to a dramatic increase in suspensions and expulsions […] these rates have risen even though school violence has been stable or declining” (Heitzeg 13 qtd Skiba). The practice is allowed to continue despite the decline in violence. Furthermore, the American Psychological Association Task Force notes the negative result between the “use of school suspension and schoolwide academic