Zero Tolerance

Although it is certain that all schools must do their best job to ensure the safety of its staff and students. There have been a lot of questions of late concerning the zero-tolerance policies and procedures that are used to go about achieving those goals. In its origin, zero-tolerance policy was intended to address very serious offenses such as firearm possession; it is now being used to combat other offenses such as disrespect and fighting. Although the policy seems to be popular, it most definitely has its flaws, and many school districts are misusing it. The evidence is overwhelming that suggests something must be done with the current policies that are in place.

Zero-tolerance was originally put in place as an approach to drug enforcement. This term has become widely practiced in schools today. In 1994, under President Bill Clinton, The Gun-Free Schools Act was passed. It states, that schools are required to implement a zero-tolerance policy requiring a student who is found on school property in possession of a firearm, is to be suspended for no less than one year. If schools do not follow this mandate, they could lose their federal funding.

In a study done in 2005, it showed that from 1992 to 2002, violent crime has declined by 50% (Axman, 2005). Although he did not provide the source were his information came from, nor did he mention that the decline of violence was a result of the zero-tolerance policy. In fact, the only data that suggests that zero-tolerance is working, is from a study that says from 1974 to 1998, school suspensions have rose from 1.7 million, to 3.1 million students (Wald, 2001). School officials should wonder what good could come from removing so many students in the one place where they are certain to have a positive role model.

Therefore, I believe that the zero-tolerance policies in place need to be radically changed, and implement new strategies.

Zero-tolerance policies are constantly being scrutinized for their inadequacies. If you look at the comparison between white, black, and other minority groups, the numbers are alarming. The number of African-American students suspended or expelled compared to that of white students is nearly 3-1. There is no data to support that African-American students show more trends to higher rates of disruption or violence, rather, African-American students may be disciplined harder for far less or more subjective reasons.

While the intent of zero-tolerance policies is to protect schools from violence, the policy has unfortunately resulted in two major negative side effects. School officials continue to abuse and misuse the policy for instances that were not originally covered under the zero-tolerance policy. The original policy was not meant to be used for suspending students for dying your hair a different color or bringing a pencil to school with a picture of a gun on it. School administrators continued abuse