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The Problem with 'Zero': On tolerance and common sense in the schools.
You know the stories. They have been cropping up in everyday conversation among all classes and conditions of Americans for four or five years now.
--A Pittsburgh kindergartner was disciplined in 1998 because his Halloween firefighter costume included a plastic axe.
--A ten-year-old girl at McElwain Elementary in Thornton, Colo., repeatedly asked a certain boy on the playground if he liked her. The boy complained to a teacher. School administrators threatened to suspend the girl, citing the school's "zero tolerance" guidelines for sexual harassment.
--In Cobb County, Ga., a sixth-grader was suspended last year because the ten-inch key chain on her Tweety Bird wallet was considered a weapon in violation of the school's zero-tolerance policy.
--In November 1997, a Colorado Springs school district suspended six- year-old Seamus Morris under the school's zero-tolerance drug policy. The drug? Organic lemon drops from a health-food store.
--T. J. West, aged 13, drew a picture of a Confederate flag on a scrap of paper. His school in Derby, Kan., had listed the flag as a "hate" symbol, so West was suspended for racial harassment and intimidation. This one went to federal court. The boy lost, took his case to the Tenth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, lost again, and took it to the U.S. Supreme Court, which refused to hear it.
It would be comforting to think that all this "zero tolerance" insanity was driven by dimwitted administrators and avaricious lawyers. No doubt some of it is, but in at least one recent case in New York City, zero tolerance has been enforced by parents. A ten-year-old boy at a Brooklyn public school was taunted for being overweight and Jewish. At last he threatened to bring his dad's gun to school. The boy was transferred to a different school and charged with juvenile harassment. When parents at his new school got wind of the incident, hundreds of them pulled their kids from classes in protest. The boy's father did indeed have a handgun-legally owned and registered, kept in a combination-lock safe bolted to the floor. Police took the gun away. The boy is now being homeschooled.
- Violence, zero tolerance and the subversion of professional practice.
- Magazine article from: Contemporary Nurse Holmes, Colin A. May 1, 2006 700+ words
...Most significantly, zero tolerance was formally endorsed...through the Gun-Free Schools Act of 1994, as...to misbehaviour in schools, including drug...2003: 239) notes: Zero-tolerance policies are 'school or district polic...
- The Dark Side of Zero Tolerance Can Punishment Lead to Safe Schools?
- Magazine article from: Phi Delta Kappan Skiba, Russ Peterson, Reece January 1, 1999 700+ words
...the early zero tolerance drug programs...the public schools. In late 1989 school districts...promulgated zero tolerance policies...Yonkers public schools, proposed a sweeping zero tolerance program as...who caused school disruption...
- Panel releases report on school violence zero-tolerance policies.
- Magazine article from: Journal Record (Oklahoma City, OK) December 13, 2001 700+ words
...concludes zero-tolerance policies on school violence...legislation giving schools more tools...mandated zero tolerance as part of the Gun-Free Schools Act of 1994...firearm on school property and required schools to implement zero tolerance to be ...
- Research update: zero tolerance doesn't add up: research shows that...
- Magazine article from: Parks & Recreation McMahon, Laura Sharpe, Erin September 1, 2006 700+ words
...The rationale of a zero-tolerance policy is that it sends...organizations have adopted a zero-tolerance approach, following...similar rationale as the school districts (NRPA Youth...is no question that zero-tolerance policies communicate...
- Zero tolerance policies and the marginalization of students of color and other...
- Magazine article from: Bilingual Review Saenz, Rogelio May 1, 2004 700+ words
...their classrooms or schools to be placed in stigmatizing...programs or pushed out of school completely without a high school diploma. Essentially zero tolerance policies have served...transfer many students from schools to prisons. Reyes demonstrates...
- Zero tolerance for zero tolerance.(The Providence Journal)
- Newspaper article from: Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service Terzian, Philip October 24, 2002 700+ words
...tolerance is a hallmark of frenzy. Zero tolerance for weaponry has led to the...draw pictures of cannons. Zero tolerance for drugs has led to urine...girls who harbor Motrin on the school bus. Zero tolerance for crime has led to three...
- Zero tolerance: the sound and the fury. (alcohol and drug policy)(Editorial)
- Newspaper article from: The Brown University Digest of Addiction Theory and Application Lewis, David C. February 1, 1997 700+ words
...illegal drugs, the zero tolerance policy is less specific...ineffectiveness of the zero tolerance approach to illegal...one Advil tablet to school in her backpack. And...reduction ad absurdum of zero tolerance drug policy. Not all...
- Shut up, they explained. (adoption of zero-tolerance policies)
- Magazine article from: Reason Olson, Walter June 1, 1997 700+ words
...consider the case of zero tolerance policies on other subjects...contraband at public schools. Zero tolerance weapons codes meant...sent to a disciplinary school for bringing to show...cleaning fingernails." Schools have likewise expelled...
- February `97: Zero tolerance: The sound and the fury.
- Newspaper article from: The Brown University Digest of Addiction Theory and Application July 1, 2001 700+ words
...illegal drugs, the zero tolerance policy is less specific...ineffectiveness of the zero tolerance approach to illegal...one Advil tablet to school in her backpack. And...reduction ad absurdum of zero tolerance drug policy. Not all...
- Texas A&M U.: COLUMN: Church must re-evaluate zero tolerance policy.
- News wire article from: The America's Intelligence Wire March 4, 2004 700+ words
...accordance with U.S. bishops' zero-tolerance policy. However, a recent report...report insists that a policy of zero tolerance is an overreaction, when evidence shows that, if anything, zero tolerance "has barely been enacted, and...
Source: HighBeam Research, The Problem with 'Zero': On tolerance and common sense in the schools.