Zero Tolerance
Fed up with fights, weapons, alcohol and drugs, more than three quarters of schools around the country have enacted zero tolerance policies. The new rules set pre-determined consequences for specific offenses. As a result, many good students are going down with the bad.
The no-nonsense policies leave no room for exception. Thirteen-year-old Andre left a small army knife in his backpack after a weekend camping trip and no explanation could get him out of a 13 day suspension. His father, a teacher, at the high school still defends the policy. “Once it falls into a certain category, then you’re down the road without any kind of explanations or defense or anything like that,” says Frank Mastogiacomo, Andre’s father.
Last year more than a quarter of a million students were suspended from schools or removed all together. School administrators say they collect switchblades, razors, guns, even pen knives from students and they make extra effort to inform parents and kids about the zero tolerance policies.
The best protection for kids is to learn early what Andre learned the hard way. Know what you’re carrying before you head out to school.
What Parents Should Know
The National Center for Education Statistics surveyed the nations schools on violence and discipline problems and released the following findings for the 1996/97 school year:
- 10% of all public schools experienced one or more serious violent crimes including murder, rape, sexual battery, suicide, fight with a weapon, or robbery that were reported to law enforcement.
- 45% of elementary schools reported one or more violent incidents compared with 74% of middle schools and 77% of high schools.
- Physical attacks or fights without a weapon led the list of reported crimes in public schools.
- 4% of elementary schools, 19% of middle schools, and 21% of high schools reported one or more serious violent crimes.
- 78% of schools reported having some type of violence prevention or violence reduction program with a majority of schools reporting low level security but no security guards or metal detectors.
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Once it falls into a certain category, then you’re down the road without any kind of explanations or defense. --Frank Mastrogiacomo, parent |
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Heavy Hand Zero tolerance policies have come under attack recently for unfairly singling out and punishing kids who have never caused trouble . Andre was a good student, never in trouble, who forgot a pocket knife was in his backpack. “I had forgotten about it. My first reaction was hey, what’s it doing there,” says Andre. Critics say all or nothing policies punish normally well-behaved kids who make careless or innocent mistakes. |
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Crack
Down On Crime A report on Violence and Discipline Problems in the U. S. Public Schools for 1996-97 finds: *Three
quarters or more of all schools have zero tolerance policies for
some offenses. |
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Resources
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