The Negative Impact Of Zero Tolerance Policies On School Culture

School discipline policies are complex structures that have negative impact on school culture. Punitive consequences are ineffective practices as they serve as disintegrative modes of isolation and rejection. Even a single suspension greatly increases the odds of students repeating a grade, dropping out of school, and ending up in the criminal justice system (Flannery, 2014). When schools manage behavioral problems by removing scholars from the learning milieu, two factors emerge: (i) academically, the impact widens the achievement gap, and (ii) suspensions have little significance on changing the undesired behavior. Commonly practiced punishments, for example, detention, expulsion, and suspension, and zero tolerance policies share congruent objectives: immediately address the situation and administer sanction. Teske (2011) explains, “the history and etymology of the term “zero tolerance” can be traced back to the 1980s during State and Federal efforts to combat drugs or what became known during the 1980s as the “war on drugs.” Based on the criminological roots in which it’s concepts are grounded, its placement and use in …show more content…
Despite being a novice or veteran teacher, discipline management is not efficiently trained nor do current models support educators. Facilitators relinquish their power by either use of degrading forms of punishments or sending students to an administrator. For example, a black student who has misbehaved in class by calling out, stealing or arguing with others, during learning can feel targeted. Valuable instructional time is lost by the class to address the act. As a result, the incident is documented and forwarded to the school administrator who issues a consequence. A parent-administrator conference is conducted and the child is sent home. The detrimental effect is far reaching, and initiates toxicant in the home-and-school partnerships, healing, and barricades reentry to the