More Schools Reconsidering Zero Tolerance Policies And On-Campus Law Enforcement
from the the-overdue-reemergence-of-common-sense dept
We've written several times about the ridiculous and tragic outcomes of school zero tolerance policies, especially when enforced by "resource officers" (the more child-friendly term for law enforcement officers deployed in schools).
Zero tolerance policies have been on the rise since the mid-90's, thanks to the War on Drugs. High profile school shootings over the past decade have only made these policies worse, as did tying school funding to certain enforcement measures. The problem with these policies is they remove any nuance from discipline, leading to a pop tart bitten into the shape of a gun being treated with the same severity as an actual weapon.
These policies don't solely affect drug and gun possession. They have also been rewritten to cover many other infractions, thanks to the (perceived) rise in bullying and cyberbullying. The end result has been an increase in suspensions, expulsions and arrests, frequently over disciplinary problems that would have been handled in a more rational fashion (and by school administrators, rather than LEOs) before these policies were put in place.
It now appears some schools around the nation are realizing these policies have done more harm than good.
Faced with mounting evidence that get-tough policies in schools are leading to arrest records, low academic achievement and high dropout rates that especially affect minority students, cities and school districts around the country are rethinking their approach to minor offenses.By removing administrators' ability to tailor punishments to the student by considering extenuating circumstances, zero tolerance policies have demanded a perverse form of consistency that results in large numbers of suspensions and arrests. Now, schools are starting to realize that these actions only lead to further problems and further separation of at-risk students from an education.
Perhaps nowhere has the shift been more pronounced than in Broward County’s public schools. Two years ago, the school district achieved an ignominious Florida record: More students were arrested on school campuses here than in any other state district, the vast majority for misdemeanors like possessing marijuana or spraying graffiti.
Rather than push children out of school, districts like Broward are now doing the opposite: choosing to keep lawbreaking students in school, away from trouble on the streets, and offering them counseling and other assistance aimed at changing behavior.Throwing kids into an already-congested criminal system and crippling their future for minor violations is a very strange way to turn them into educated and useful adults. For many schools, zero tolerance policies have shifted their focus from education to enforcement, to the detriment of their students. When a school becomes a rough approximation of a prison, the students will suffer, as has been evidenced by years of declining test scores.
These alternative efforts are increasingly supported, sometimes even led, by state juvenile justice directors, judges and police officers.
“What you see is the beginning of a national trend here,” said Michael Thompson, the director of the Council of State Governments Justice Center. “Everybody recognizes right now that if we want to really find ways to close the achievement gap, we are really going to need to look at the huge number of kids being removed from school campuses who are not receiving any classroom time.”This push towards a more discretionary approach to discipline is not just coming from parents and faculty. It's coming from up top, as well.
Beginning in 2009, the Department of Justice and the Department of Education aggressively began to encourage schools to think twice before arresting and pushing children out of school. In some cases, as in Meridian, Miss., the federal government has sued to force change in schools.In Broward County, some immediate results of the shift away from zero tolerance have already been observed.
School-based arrests have dropped by 41 percent, and suspensions, which in 2011 added up to 87,000 out of 258,000 students, are down 66 percent from the same period in 2012, school data shows.All of this adds up to at-risk students spending more time in classrooms and getting additional assistance to work through their problems. It's certainly not going to turn every student around but it has an infinitely higher chance of doing so than the normal "processing" (i.e., suspend/cuff/expel) did previously.
Hopefully, Broward County's success will be sustained and prompt others to reconsider their policies. This sort of change would go far towards turning our schools back into schools, rather than the glorified juvenile detention centers zero tolerance policies turned them into.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: education, law enforcement, schools, students, zero tolerance
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
Show me the money!
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Schools are an approximation of real life, the education system is intended to teach students and children that life IS LAWS and rules and responsibilities, above all else (including math) schools create citizens who understand what living in a society is about, and that conduct and actions have repercussions.
Now that is not saying a zero tolerance policy is appropriate, but if that IS the policy it is pointless to argue "degrees of zero", that only serves to tech the children that "NO does not necessilary mean NO", or that if you think a rule is silly you don't have to obey it.
Which is exactly the opposite to what schools are for, and what society expects of its citizens.
If it is a zero tolerance policy that means ZERO tolerance, it does not mean "a little bit of tolerance", it is not appropriate to claim 'zero does not mean zero' if you think it is not much!
It is appropriate to teach that "a rule is a rule" agree with it or not, its the rule.
You have a right to argue to value or validity of the rule, but not the validity of breaking the rule.
Prisons are full of people who do not understand that basic fact, that a rule is a rule, even if you don't agree with it, its the people who think 'zero is not zero' who end up in prison.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Zero Tolerance For Zero Responsiblity People
It's many times easier for a student to find a drug dealer than find a tutor, an after school activity, or even a balanced lunch. The hallways are more likely patrolled by the enforcers from one or more gangs getting territory, and less likely to be watched by school staff.
Because people cannot take responsibility and cannot show basic respect for each other and the institutions, zero tolerance policies and having law enforcement on site is the result.
You can trace a lot of things in modern life back to people not respecting the rights of others and not respecting societal norms. US society in particular is crumbling quickly, with the inner city mentality taking over... "don't diss me or I will pop a cap into you, yo!" seems to be par for the course, reinforced by music, movies, TV, and day to day culture. The foundations of the greatness of the US is quickly eroding, melting like snow from the inside out so that when it does collapse, it seems sudden. It's not.
(oh, and thanks to Mike and his vigilant crew for blocking my IP address again. It's not a VPN, it's really my IP. Deal with it, and stop being a censorship tool).
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Fuck those people who thought the Broken Window Theory was anything but a completely unsupported silly idea and decided it should be applied to kids in schools.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re:
People need to be able and willing to challenge rules or even laws that they believe are unjust or ridiculous, otherwise things will never get better, only worse.
Teaching kids otherwise does nothing more than turn them into nice little drones that will always do what they're told, a nasty situation for society and everyone but those making the rules and giving out the orders.
The whole idea behind 'zero tolerance' policies was a stupid one from the get-go, they might have well been called 'zero thought' policies, as that's what they actually are, just a way for those implementing them to avoid having to actually deal with problems on an individual basis, and instead just treat everything, from minor to major, equally harshly, whether or not what actually happened merits it.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re:
The argument is about 2 things - first is that the rule itself is idiotic. The second is that applying true zero tolerance in these cases are leading not only to ridiculous outcomes but vast unintended consequences.
The example in the article about the pop tart is a great one. True, "zero tolerance" on weapons means that no weapon is tolerated. But what kind of idiot confuses a pastry with an actual weapon? What kind of person, let alone a child, would consider that particular rule before altering the shape of the baked good? Nobody. This rule does absolutely nothing to help with its intended purpose (keeping actual weapons away from school) but does plenty to destroy useful activities in other areas - what child is going to explore their creativity if they risk suspension and police involvement every time they do it?
It's sad that your advice is to bow down and accept such stupidity silently rather than attempt to have rules that not only make some kind of sense, but are both enforceable and effective. No, you'd rather have silent compliance with even the most destructive and idiotic rules that nobody can know they're breaking until someone's tried applying them.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re:
Also, a lot of changed sparked from the fact that people BROKE laws. Ie: the Apartheid (racism imposed by the law) or slavery.
Educate the children and it won't be necessary to punish the men - Pythagoras
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re:
darryl just hates it when due process is enforced.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re:
Such policies violate labor laws, they violate the right to due process, they impose unconscionable restrictions on citizens without any plausible cause.
The US Supreme Court has ruled over and over and over and over and over that students ARE citizens and that they are not wholly stripped of the rights of citizens just because they enter a school. Especially if that school attendance is mandatory under the law.
You can't train people to be good citizens by treating them in a way that is ILLEGAL to treat citizens, then claiming that your policies override every statute and the constitution itself so they're perfectly legal. They're not.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re:
Probably not even a state called Texas.
Besides I double dog dare you cite every single rule that you have to follow right now and then again the next month and the next and the next since every month something changes.
Zero tolerance is even more idiotic when people don't even know what rules they have to follow to begin with.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re:
Yes, and this is why there is
1) bigotry in schools.
2) zero tolerance for the students
3) unaccountability for the administration
4) police raids and tasering
5) terrorist drills
The (including math) tells me you did poorly - amirite?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Reversing swing of pendulum...
Presuming that some of the implied reforms occur in any generally noteworthy degree, these new non-zero tolerance policies will produce a few mistakes ("hey, this isn't a 'faux' thug - it's a real thug"). With non-zero, they'll keep a few that zero would 'a' kicked. Some of these unkicked social maladroits will crush, kill, and destroy. The resulting what-were-you-thinking recriminations and associated lawsuits will arrest the pendulum and reverse its arc again.
School administrators need real authority to enforce reasonable standards with corresponding responsibility to make decisions without the risk of total legal destruction either personal or for their systems. As long as lawyers and their intestinally parasitic clients are permitted to circle the waters in the fashions that led to zero-tolerance, the swing is unlikely to establish a lasting change.
Until sanely adult balances between authority and responsibility are reflected in all levels of this equation, the pendulum will simply swing...just like it currently does with everything else.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
The solution for "zero tolerance" policies
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Rules is rules. Guns are guns. Sexual assault is sexual assault.
But a 19-year-old who has a 17 yo girlfriend with pissed-off parents is NOT the same as someone who sexually abuses a three-year-old. A pop tart in the shape of a gun, or a picture of a parent in the Armed forces with a government-issued gun, or a gun charm on a charm bracelet are NOT guns (and all are cases where a "Zero tolerance policy" was interpreted as requiring suspensions). And stupid rules are NOT what creates law-abiding citizens...good rules do.
These policies are to relieve teachers and administrators from having to exercise judgement, because judgement exercised may go wrong, and result in legal liability(read: excessively huge monetary settlements with greedy parents represented by greedy tort lawyers). Thus, the national epidemic bedeviling grade schools of students playing 'doctor' behind the bushes is dealt with by a Zero Tolerance policy for TOUCHING.
Because we wouldn't want to pretend any of the specialists in pedagogy we employ in our schools can tell the difference between a hug or a pat on the back and a finger up the bung. Clearly they can't and have to be saved, along with the state education budget, from having to make such judgements.
ZT policies should be ended because they are based on faulty logic and suspect motivations, and teach DISRESPECT for rules and laws. Which, given the constant drumbeat of rebel-worship from Hollywood and the media, is entirely unnecessary.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re:
In fact, Cracked.com has a couple of articles on it.
http://www.cracked.com/article_17216_the-5-most-popular-safety-laws-that-dont-work_p2.html - #1
http://www.cracked.com/quick-fixes/the-3-most-insane-overreactions-by-school-security/
Damn, it's almost like common sense says that those Zero tolerance laws shouldn't work.
But you know, common sense is so rare it's a goddammed Super Power.
Right, Deadpool?
http://wendy-cooper.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/mp-common-sense-edited.jpg
[ link to this | view in thread ]
This will just encourage imaginary bad guys to come into the schools firing imaginary machine guns at everyone, and throwing imaginary hand grenades!
(yes students have been suspended for throwing imaginary hand grenades and making a gun shape with their hand and pointing it at someone and saying 'bang')
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: The solution for "zero tolerance" policies
So in otherwords, they should proactively enact their own policy on themselves (since most "zero tolerance" policies don't account for any due process either.) I like it. I wish it were true for the laws that get enacted by Congress too, that they must proactively enact the law they are about to pass on the rest of the world on themselves first. Would save us a lot of problems in the future.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re:
That is wrong on so many levels. It does in fact exist and is a foundation of society. It is called a trial! Something both you and the school system have conveniently forgotten.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re:
They are?? If that's so, schools are failing even more than even their worst critics claim, since school is nothing like real life.
I disagree completely. Which you can't argue that breaking the rule is legal, in real life it can be very valid. bad laws, in real life, only get changed in two ways: wealthy or powerful people want it changed, or through civil disobedience.
If people never broke bad laws, most of the really bad laws we've shed would still be with us.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Zero Tolerance For Zero Responsiblity People
Zero Thinking policies are not built to improve those problems you imagine. When you slam Little Timmy, Juan, Mary or Jamal into the alternative school because they were the victim of bullying, walked in the hall without a toilet pass, wore a shirt with a gun-toting patriotic soldier on it, or any other number of borderline activities, you are setting them on a course to dropout and criminal outcomes. This is strengthened when they are expelled completely and/or arrested on foolish charges.
There is no need for special no-thinking guidelines for dealing with a delinquent student striding through the halls carrying an axe and smoking a joint the size of a baseball bat, no matter how vivid your imagination.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: The solution for "zero tolerance" policies
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re:
School attendance is not mandatory, particularly attendance at any particular school. Only education is mandatory. Or perhaps I should say "education" given the state of some public schools.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Show me the money!
[ link to this | view in thread ]
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re: Zero Tolerance For Zero Responsiblity People
That is where you are wrong. Most administrators have been burned badly by trying to deal with "the worst of the worst" to the point that they no longer want to do it. There is an acute shortage of teachers and administrators in many places because they do not want to work in an environment where they are at risk.
The only way to reclaim those schools is (sadly) to push "law and order" to try to keep the situations tolerable.
It's not a zero thinking policy, nice attempt to simplify and insult all in one shot. You perhaps need to go visit some inner city schools and reconsider your answer. Very occassionally low tolerance programs do get comparatively innocent kids into trouble, but the whole "setting them on a course to dropout and criminal outcomes" is pretty much hand waving raving. Do you have anything to back this sort of thing up?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re:
"Death."
"What is the punishment for rebellion?"
"Death."
"Well, men, we are already late."
The story of the end of a large scale aplication of "zero tollerence."
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Zero Tolerance For Zero Responsiblity People
You're an advocate for stupidity, aren't you? horse with no name, you're such an insufferable fucktard.
[ link to this | view in thread ]