Zero Tolerance Policy Summary

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Perlstein’s article addresses the challenges of a zero tolerance policy in U.S. schools, and desires educators to focus on the educational system, which fails to recognize the human and social contributing factors, regarding violence in schools. Perlstein asserts that educators must concentrate on “social and cultural” (Perlstein 76) issues to understand why violence occurs in schools to resolve the problem. He maintains that educators must do better than the current punitive approaches currently practiced and “make safety a curricular issue rather than a disciplinary one”. (Perlstein 79) His main theme emphasizes the “new” concept that social educators must stress issues over security measures and zero tolerance policies since they are not feasible deterrence’s.

Perlstein points out decades of research, which established the success of a nurturing rehabilitative approach rather than a punitive one, once implemented in the juvenile courts, yet abandoned nurturing rehabilitation and instead chose to be a reflection of the adult prison system. High schools also began to mirror societal division and school social hierarchy, such as the “in” group and the “outsiders”. The foundation of retribution over education slowly took hold and seeped into the school system discounting compassion and kindness as a deterrent to violent behavior. …show more content…

There is a disconnect between suburban youth, whom seem cut off from parents and their communities, therefore they have no other outlet to express their concerns, which may result in acting out violent behavior. Other contributing factors to violent behavior are subjects of concerns such as bullying, sexual harassment and other activities, which assert power within the social structures in schools. These factors are usually not brought to light until there is physical violence, yet the mental torture of students is

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