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Introduction to zero tolerance in schools essays
Introduction to zero tolerance in schools essays
Paper on zero-tolerance school policies
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The education and future of America’s youth is being jeopardized, with schools as the main culprit. As backwards as this may sound, it is imperative that schools’ zero tolerance policies are eliminated in order to put an end to the perpetration of funneling students into the School-to-Prison Pipeline (STPP). Doing so will result in limiting the amount of juveniles that come into contact with the criminal justice system. The school-to-prison pipeline is a process through which students are pushed out of schools and into prisons. In other words, it is a process of criminalizing youth that is carried out by disciplinary policies and practices within schools that put students into contact with law enforcement. (thoughtco.com, 2017). The individuals …show more content…
Data from the U.S. Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights Data Collection (2011-12), concludes that zero tolerance policies have increased suspension rates for all students, but suspension rates have increased at a higher rate for black students. The percentage of black students being suspended is two to three times higher than their white peers. Black students make up 16% of the student population, but have 32-42% of the students being suspended or expelled, while white students represent a similar range of 31-40% of students being suspended or expelled, but make up 51% of the student population. The implementation of zero tolerance policies has done more damage than actual help to the student populations which the schools are obligated to serve. It is reported that 90% of schools in the United States have zero tolerance policies, but research suggests that zero tolerance policies do not make a school safer and lead to disportionate discipline for students of color (Forgione, 1998; McCarter, …show more content…
Test results dictate whether schools and teachers are incentivized or reprimanded; often underperforming students are removed because they cannot perform at the level of academic success required of them which lowers aggregate test scores (Amrein & Berliner, 2002).
Exclusionary discipline is defined as any discipline strategy that excludes students from actual regular instruction—such as in-school suspension (ISS), when students are outside of the regular classroom; out-of- school suspension (OSS); and expulsion (Losen, 2011). Out of the estimated one million students in the study conducted by Fabelo, T., Thompson, M. D., Plotkin, M., Carmichael, D., Marchbanks, M. P., & Booth, E. A. (2011), 54 percent of students have reportedly have received ISS as a punishment, while 31 percent reportedly have received OSS as a punishment in their
In today’s society mainly anyone growing up in poverty stricken communities, single parent homes, domestic violence or infested and drug infested areas are at risk to being abducted by the school to prison pipeline. The school to prison pipeline is a system designed for at risk teens that do not do well in school. The effect is them being thrown in jail. Economically the black and the Latino community constantly after generation and generation are getting dealt the same hand because each child in the new generation is growing up in a broken home and are falling victim to the same problems that the generation before them have faced. By compiling annual reports on the total number of disciplinary
A new policy is needed and most certainly should start out with holding schools to handle their own discipline situations, rather than relying on school security and police (Wilson, 2014). School administrators must be able to differentiate between what is a true discipline situation and when a student simply made a mistake. The rate of school suspensions have skyrocketed over the last thirty years from 1.7 million nationwide to 3.1 million and growing today (ACLU, n.d.). Each school needs to create policies of when to get school security involved and what the school’s security job involves. Unless there is a true threat to the safety of the school and/or its student’s law enforcement should never be called (Wison, 2014). The instinct to dial 911 at every infraction has to stop. Furthermore the schools must develop a gender and racial fairness; black children should not be receiving harsher punishments for similar infractions of white students (Wilson,
Today not only do we have adults committing crimes, but millions of adolescents are committing the same crimes as adults. “Statistics show more than 1.1 million youths being arrested on a daily basis, and more than 800,000 youths belonging to different gangs (Siegel &Welsh, 2014).” It is the state juvenile authorities to deal with these children and the cost is massive. So states came up with programs to put a stop to kids becoming delinquents. With doing so they hope to save money and help kids.
In the current days, we have a problem with our youth, they aren’t finishing school. Majority of middle school and high school students will not graduate because of a problem called the “School to Prison Pipeline”, this zero- tolerance policy that has been adopted by many schools, police officers, and judges. In my research, I tend to find “How is School to Prison Pipeline affecting juveniles around the United States?”. This topic is very interesting to me because how are juveniles being treated like criminals at a very young age, when they have done nothing wrong.
The zero tolerance policy has become a national controversy in regards to the solid proven facts that it criminalizes children and seems to catch kids who have no intention of doing harm. Although, there has been substantial evidence to prove that the policies enforced in many schools have gone far beyond the extreme to convict children of their wrongdoing. The punishments for the act of misconduct have reached a devastating high, and have pointed students in the wrong direction. Despite the opinions of administrators and parents, as well as evidence that zero tolerance policies have deterred violence in many public and private schools, the rules of conviction and punishment are unreasonable and should be modified.
Another major reason why juveniles are ending up in the juvenile justice system is because many schools have incorporate the zero tolerance policy and other extreme school disciplinary rules. In response to violent incidents in schools, such as the Columbine High School massacre, school disciplinary policies have become increasingly grave. These policies have been enacted at the school, district and state levels with the hopes of ensuring the safety of students and educators. These policies all rely on the zero tolerance policy. While it is understandable that protecting children and teachers is a priority, it is not clear that these strict policies are succeeding in improving the safety in schools.
Who hasn’t heard of the Columbine shooting, where in the spring of 1999 in Littleton, Colorado over a dozen people where killed and many others were wounded at the hands of two students? Or even more recently, who does not know about the Virginia Tech massacre where a single student killed thirty-two people and wounded over twenty more? University of Texas, California State University, San Diego State University, the list of school violence is long and heart-breaking. Students and teachers have lost their lives by the dozens to gunmen that carried a grudge for some reason or another. These are extreme cases, for sure, and there is without a doubt a need for discipline in schools every where. However, zero-tolerance policies are not the answer to school discipline unless they can be reformed to have fewer gray areas and kept from being too strict, be less disruptive to the education process and allow teachers to keep their voices, and figure out how to correct claims of racial discrimination, regardless of claims that they are effective.
As we have learned, school-to-prison pipeline does nothing but stray at-risk youths away from education by criminalizing the students. At-risk students who are forced into a system like the school-to-prison pipeline are stripped away from their human rights and are powerless to fight back. It is not the students’ decision to be surrounded by the toxic systems, but because of the socio-economic imbalance that exist. Many of these at-risk students are from poverty where their parents are unable to fully provide for them and enroll them to a well off curriculum. However, socio-economic imbalance is not the only factor, policies like the zero tolerance reduces the students’ possibility to thrive in school. The zero tolerance policy demands for
‘Zero-tolerance’ policies criminalize minor infractions of school rules, while high-stakes testing programs encourage educators to push out low-performing students to improve their schools’ overall test scores. Students of color are especially vulnerable to push-out trends and the discriminatory application of discipline (Gabbard 2013:33).
The school to prison pipeline is a caused by disciplinary acts that push students out of schools and into the criminal justice system. These “zero tolerance policies” are the cause of the incrimination of students with disabilities and racial minorities. Instead of correcting minor behavior, students are often suspended or even expelled. It seems wrong to keep students from school rather than punishing them in a way that makes them want to do better. These punishments have a huge effect on minorities, the poor, and disabled students. Minorities make up more than half of the suspensions per year in United States schools. Instead of being
Silverman discusses the implications of the zero tolerance approach on minorities and the national attention it has created. Silverman and others agree that there needs to be consequences for students that are out to hurt others, but that there needs to be room for administrators to use sound judgement or in most cases good ole common sense. Zero tolerance policies currently do not distinguish between a 5-year-old bringing a nerf gun to school and a 15-year-old bringing a loaded .45 caliber with the intention of doing harm to
Martinez, S. (2009). A system gone berserk: How are zero-tolerance policies really …..affecting schools? Preventing School Failure, 53(3), 153-157. Retrieved from …..http://search.proquest.com.ezproxylocal.library.nova.edu/docview/228530113?acco…..untid=6579
Khadaroo, Teicher. A. “School suspensions: Does racial bias feed the school-to-prison pipeline?” The Christian Science Monitor. March 31, 2013. Web.
Discipline has always been an issue that has plagued education. Troublesome students have always been a source of disturbances and distractions. Many school have implemented an in school suspension (ISS) program to combat the disruptiveness of problem students. These programs aim to remove students from the classroom while keeping them in an educational setting.
With a closer look into our educational system, it is clear that students are causing more trouble in schools today because of the lack of discipline. Many Americans believe that zero tolerance and possibly corporal punishment are ridiculous and even to an extent, a form of abuse. In reality, these policies, if enforced properly, could be the solution to the growing discipline problems in our schools today. Already, there have been too many injuries and deaths of students in schools. Physical fighting and the possession of weapons in schools need to be banned and more seriously dealt with. Some people believe that strict zero tolerance policies and corporal punishment in schools would reinforce a fear of the consequences, which would bring the students to think a little harder before inflicting such irresponsible acts upon others.