Zero Tolerance In Schools

The Zero-Tolerance Policy first ever rose after the Gun-Free Schools Act of 1994 once the government had enough funding to support zero-tolerance in most all over the United States. Zero tolerance was meant to prevent crime and make the learning environment in schools all over the U.S. to be safer. Any student that breaks a rule should be given the harshest punishment without question to give a clear demonstration to other students that there are consequences for the decisions you make. As the policy first came to fruition crime had been lowering at surprisingly fast rates and continue to fall. Yet, in many cases, some parents, students, and even teachers have found in recent studies that the Zero-Tolerance Policy has become far too strict …show more content…
Some states have a less strict policy, while others will send students to the juvenile detention center no questions asked. The argument between whether or not the policy is working is currently still in development and both sides offer a good point of view either in support of the policy or against.
As crimes rates started to rise in the 1990’s people began searching as to what was happening to the youth in those times. They found students who had less supervision and little to no punishment for their actions are more likely to continue their behavior and will, in turn, grow into a criminal as they become older. Once the government enacted the Gun-Free Schools Act students now had more expectations and stricter rules in order to counter bad behavior. Nesa Sasser, a …show more content…
Gjelten, a special projects editor at Nolo and legal author since 1994, explained how the zero tolerance affects the students, “The punishment applies regardless of the circumstances, the reasons for the behavior (like self-defense), or the student’s history of discipline problems.” Even when a student defends themselves they will be given the same punishment as their attacker would. Zero tolerance is not just about violence as well, there is much more to the policy now that the years have gone by and more criminal activity has been on the rise. Many parents, teachers, and especially students all argue that the zero tolerance is not helping the kids who have done wrong. In fact, some punishments, such as public shaming, can cause the student a psychological hit and make them believe that they are a “bad person”. Moreover, if a student feels that they are bad then they are more likely to act up and make poor choices. Most of the students who suffer harsh punishment act up even more afterward. On many occasions, students cannot give each other even the smallest kind of painkiller like Tylenol for example without being suspended from school. Over the years the policy has become far too harsh and thus making students act worse than they did before. At first, the zero tolerance worked, but now times are much different and nothing has been done to help. Several school shootings happened in the past year alone including the current year. Zero tolerance had not stopped any of