Michigan schools have one of the highest rates of expulsion and suspension due to the zero tolerance law. However, come August 2017 this will be changing, and schools will need to accommodate to the new law. The new law that was passed unanimously by Michigan’s legislature modifies the zero tolerance law in schools state wide. Districts will be required to consider multiple factors before expelling or suspending a student. What this mean is that schools may have to change their school code of conducts.
We, The Volunteers Advocates of Mid-Michigan (VAMM), would like to make this process easier for school districts by providing information and professionals to aid in re-coding. We understand that this process will not be easy, but with your help
In California in 2000, Gary Ewing stole three golf clubs worth $399 each. The crime itself was not egregious; however, Ewing was on parole for a prior offense and was convicted for felony grand theft (“Ewing v. California”, n.d.). Under the three strikes law, it was discovered that he had previously been convicted for four serious or violent felonies. The court, at their discretion, had the option to reduce the conviction to a misdemeanor. Instead, it sentenced Ewing to 25 years to life in prison which felt was “grossly disproportionate” under the Eighth Amendment which prohibits cruel and unusual punishment. The State Court of Appeals affirmed the ruling as did the United States Supreme Court who ruled that the 25 year to life sentence was
The definition of an intermediate sanction is the criminal punishment between the act of imprisonment and the application of probation. This scenario and circumstances that one of these sanctions would be administered depends on multiple variables. These can be based on aggravating and mitigating circumstances, jury, and unfortunately racial and gender circumstances. Three major intermediate sanctions to take closer look at are pretrial diversion programs, fines, and community service.
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,
The intent of this argumentative research paper, is to take a close look at school systems disciplinary policies and the effect they have on students. While most school systems in the nation have adopted the zero tolerance policies, there are major concerns that specific students could be targeted, and introduced into the criminal justice system based on these disciplinary policies. This research paper is intended to focus on the reform of zero tolerance policies, and minimizing the school to prison pipeline.
Following the Columbine tragedy in 1999, “school systems across the nation introduced the zero-tolerance policies aimed at the curtailment of harmful student behaviors” (Noll, 2014, p. 295). The original focus of the policies was to eliminate the use/carrying of weapons but soon after spread to restricting drugs and medication (2014). By 2006 95% of the U.S. public schools had adopted the zero-tolerance policies and more than half of them reported taking significant action against students, many of which resulted in expulsion (2014). While the zero-tolerance polices were originally welcomed by all members of a community as a means of promoting and keeping a safer environment-- as of late many individuals are questioning the relevance of some actions and some school officials (2014).
In this essay, I will be examining how the court system can fail to deliver justice for particular cases and people’s circumstances, as well as looking at alternatives to court, like circle sentencing, restorative sentencing and alternatives for children to the formal court system, as outlined in the Young Offenders Act 1997 (NSW). Crime is defined in the Oxford Dictionary as an action or omission which constitutes an offence and is punishable by law. On the other side of this is justice; the quality of being fair and reasonable.
Lawmakers and school officials have been wearisome in the efforts of finding a policy that works to make our schools a safer place for students and administrators. Schools, both public and private, are an environment for learning and pleasant experiences that a child or adolescent will remember for the rest of their lives. Although, experiences like the Columbine High school massacres are not what an individual would want to remember and is one of the most significant enforcer when it comes to all austere policies. Zero tolerance was first introduced by President Ronald Reagan’s
The school is to protect the students from any wrong doing towards them. Such act, parents, school official and other authorities will be contacted. The case in Oakland County MI, opens many eyes for students and parents. The school board has responsibility to report such harm. This is not taken lightly, serious offense. Students could face years in prison, or face felonies.
The zero tolerance policy is strict and devises rules for students and faculty alike. It is a policy that doesn't ask questions when a rule is broken which often results in suspension and expulsion. The policy also addresses the possession of weapons, drugs, and alcohol. Many schools have adopted this policy and have observed both positive and negative results.
I personally do not believe that the zero-tolerance policy is a good thing because it limits the students abilities to defend themselves. The wellbeing of the students is and should always be the most important factor for public schools.
The term “zero tolerance” has been interpreted and used widely in public debate. For this reason there are arguments as to whether it is beneficial to incorporate zero tolerance policing into justice systems globally. The term “Zero Tolerance Policing” is ambiguous. To some, it suggests aggressive law enforcement under which no anti-social behaviours will be tolerated. To others, it refers to a policing strategy carefully designed to combat the crime problems of a specific locality (Australian Institute of Criminology 1999, 1). The purpose of this report is to provide a critical analysis of both the strengths and the weaknesses that the zero tolerance policing model has. This is done by presenting the strengths – targeting minor offences reduces the rate of serious crimes; zero tolerance policing prevents police officer discretion and how the concentration of police power into ‘hot spots’ reduces crime rates. As well as this weaknesses of zero tolerance policing is also discussed – implementing zero tolerance policing is costly; increased police power can affect their relationship with the public and racial and ethical minority groups are targeted under zero tolerance policing. In order to judge the effectiveness of zero tolerance policing, it is important that both its strengths and weaknesses are taken into consideration.
Unspoken rules are the natural phenomenon when people are having stress in modern. Due to increasing stress we need to solve from the society, causing a rise in the unspoken rules happened. We have much pressure you need to face such as high expectation of academic or policy. We need to find the factors of affecting the emotion and behaviour. Therefore, we can be easily to avoid the negative emotion and behaviour happened by unspoken rules. The aims of this project are mostly to examine the ABC model and the effect of thinking distortions. Another aim is to apply these concepts with my personal experience how the unspoken rules affect my emotion and behaviour.
The rule of law, simply put, is a principle that no one is above the law. This means that there should be no leniency for a person because of peerage, sex, religion or financial standing. England and Wales do not have a written constitution therefore the Rule of Law, which along with the parliamentary Sovereignty was regarded by legal analyst A.C Dicey, as the pillars of the UK Constitution. The Rule of Law was said to be adopted as the “unwritten constitution of Great Britain”.
However, implementing the ‘zero-tolerance’ policy has had adverse effects since it hasn’t been shown to improve the school’s overall safety. Instead, it is associated with: “ lower academic performance, higher rates of dropout, failures to graduate on time, increased academic disengagement, and subsequent disciplinary exclusions”. (Achilles). Schools with high suspension rates create a hostile environment with distrust between the staff and the student body because of the lack of ‘positive behavioral reinforcement’. If the students believe the staff doesn’t care about them, they will in return act like careless people. My cousin Jamal, claims that in his school students frequently disrupt the school day with verbal attacks with each other and even the staff--and sometimes the staff spits
The term organizational justice refers to the concept of fairness and decisions concerning the suitability of workplace outcomes or processes (Greenberg & Colquitt, 2005).