Zero Tolerance Policy

1051 Words3 Pages

Bullying: It’s not just kids being kids
Bullying is a very common type of conflict that occurs in high school. It is not uncommon for a student to be teased, taunted, or bumping into during the school day. “Every year in the United States, twelve million children are bullied” (Mansbacher, 2012). By definition, bullying is the “unwanted, aggressive behavior among school aged children that involves a real or perceived power imbalance. The behavior is repeated, or has the potential to be repeated, over time” (McCallion & Feder, 2013). Verbal harassment, nonverbal harassment, physical bullying, cyber bullying are all considered bullying. These acts are hurtful and affect not only the victim but also the accused.
Verbal harassment occurs when the victim is taunted, insulted, or called names. Verbal harassment is oftentimes the most visible sign of bullying. Teachers may overhear students being called names by their peers.

Nonverbal harassment, is also called relational aggression, this occurs when someone is isolated or ignores
Physical bullying includes pushing or
Cyber bullying is the harassment that uses technology and electronic devices (social media, emails, text messages) to bully …show more content…

Zero tolerance policies leave little discretion to schools when addressing bullying and issuing consequences for bullying. Proponets of zero tolerance policies believe that “removing troublesome students from school would lead to an overall improvement” (Daniels, 2009, p. 34) of the school’s culture. Research does not support the belief that suspending troubled students improves the school climate in fact, increased suspensions leads to lowered academic quality and increased dropout rates. Zero tolerance policies do not help the student accused of bullying others. Students that bully others need help and support for deterring the behavior. Suspensions or expulsions from school does not support the rehabilitation

Open Document