I wanted to write my thoughts about this earlier and now that the topic keeps coming up in other classes I really wanted to touch on this. So in the article Zero Tolerance as Mandatory Sentencing, I really agreed with one section that stated, " These recent zero tolerance policies do not take into account whether a student knew he or she had the object that is deemed to be a weapon, or intended to do any harm." Also, that "zero tolerance" really doesn't have anything to do with tolerance but everything to do with one-size-fits-all mandatory punishment. That jumped out at me the most because its true. I feel that the Zero Tolerance policy needs to be re-defined. A punishment needs to be handled on a trial by trial basis. A weapon doesn't have to be anything sharp or with some kind of point and a lot of people don't understand that. If a 6'4, 300 lb student who is heavy handed decides to attack somebody smaller then him with a hard cover textbook and bludgeons that person to death, then that book has just been used as a weapon. Has it not? How can you apply the same expulsion rules to a six year old as to a seventeen -year old? I think thats absolutely absurd.
So, what do you think about the Zero Tolerance policy?
Thursday, March 1, 2007
Zero Tolerance
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7 comments:
I think you make some good points: One, that we are "punishing" everybody in the same manner without looking at how different each situation is, and two, we are treating students-kids as if they are adults. I do not believe in punishing kids and I do not believe that it is an effective way of helping our students to understand the differences between acceptable and not acceptabe behavior. I personally believe that a student has a better ability to grow and change if the wrong he/she performed was made into something teachable. Keeping them after school in a silent room, keeping them out of school, is generally excluding them from being able to learn. I think that Zero Tolerance ignores the fact that teachers are dealing with human beings. Our students do not all perform the same, think the same, and do not act out in the same manner either. Taking into the account the situation and handling it based on person to person would be an improvement to this system that is obviously not doing what it's "intention" is. Also, like I mentioned above, students are not adults. They cannot be punished like adults are; they do not fully understand certain concepts. I do not believe this is a place where they can just be excused from their actions, but I do believe that there are other means of teaching and disciplining students in a constructive way based on their ages rather than on whether their actions fall under "CATEGORY RIGHT" and "CATEGORY WRONG"
I just want to say that I agree with what everybody else has said thus far on the subject, but I have a few things to add.
I'll title this "The Worst Day of My Life"
So, this one time when I was in like 7th or 8th grade I arrived at school one morning to find that I had a kitchen knife sitting in my bag. I nearly had a heart attack, because due to my school's wonderful zero-tolerance policy, if anybody knew I had that knife in my bag, I could find myself in a whole lot of trouble.
It wouldn't matter that, the reason the knife was in my bag in the first place, is because i did my homework by the kitchen table and it must have fallen in while we were cleaning up for dinner (there was still dried steak juice on it and everything!).
So I spent that whole day as a nervous wreck, praying that I didn't pull out my folder and it would come with it, or that somebody would look into my bag and see the knife there, cause I was a cooked goose.
I couldn't even alert my teacher of the situation, becuase I might as well be confessing to having brought a switchblade.
Anyhow..when I got home, I got to laugh about it a bit, but it was still a terrible experience.
Zero Tolerance policies are simply Lazy.
By instituding a zero tolerance policy, the emphasis is not on stopping problems before the start, but punishing those who make mistakes.
It's lazy because it means that schools don't have to investiate problems and situations on a case by case basis, they can simply assign a punishment to "fit the crime" and it really just does more harm that good.
Like when schools win themselves a load of publicity for expelling a kid for pointing a chicken finger and saying bang.
Or creating sexual harassment scandals because one little boy kissed a girl on the cheek and the school believes in Zero Tolerance.
Or punishing a kid who tried to express himself, and ended up writing a story containing violence or somewhat inappropriate ideas.
What happens, is that because they got in serious trouble for rather small offenses, they learn to distrust the systems in place to protect them and they learn to fear and distrust the people around them.
Those are not sollutions, those are traumatizing experiences for kids. And I agree, they're not learning anything in these situations. In fact, the exact opposite occurs.
I will also say that FEAR is no way to motivate good behavior. Personally, I think it develops some resentment in the people these polices are supposed to control. Also, if somebody wants to bring a knife to school, they're going to do it. They should be punished, but that fear of "Zero Tolerance" isn't going to stop them.
Instead, it just ends up catching a bunch of other people in the net, and creating these traumatic experiences for kids.
But, i think the bigger issue at hand here is, WHY ARE SCHOOLS SO INSISTANT ON FINDING WAYS TO TREAT ALL THEIR STUDENTS THE SAME, INSTEAD OF AS INDIVIDUALS?
That is what I find most disgusting about the whole thing.
I have to agree with some of the things that everyone has mentioned. One thing that caught my attention was that Fear is not a good way to motivate behavior. I mean you cannot scare kids into doing things because they will learn to maybe be scared of doing certain things but they wont necessarially learn why they shouldnt be doing these bad things or carrying weapons and such. Along with that I do not think that kids are learning what they did wrong when they get punished by this zero tolerance policy because they either get detentions, suspended, expelled, or the other. I mean doing these things to students is not going to always make them see that what took place was wrong. I know that this would be really difficult to do but if we could somehow make an alternative for students, like an alternative that would still be teaching them things instead of the students sitting in a room for an hour and being quiet or going home for a couple days without school, then maybe just maybe we could make a difference. I understand that there are times when people need to be punished for the things that they do but they also need to be taught and understand what they did and why they are in conclusion being treated this way. I'm not sure if any of that made sense but yeahh...
Also, daveroy commented and said why ae schools so insistent on trying to traet all students the same versus individuals..... this also got me thinking a lot. I mean it seems like in society today we want to treat everyone equally which is a good thing. But sometimes I think some people try too hard to treat everyone equally that they lose focus of the individual qualities that people have. And I understand that schools would like to treat their students equally but I guess it would also be nice to see them embracing the fact more that all the children are different too. At the same time when I say this I see both going on in schools though. I mean I see schools trying to treat everyone equal and I also see them trying to ingrain in their heads that we are all different as well. I might have contradicted myself there.. I don't know but that is all I got for now.
I think that the Zero Tolerace Policy is important to insure the safety of our students. However, i agree that sometimes it is taken too far. One example in the article that stuck out to me was when it was stated that a six year old got in trouble for carrying a plastic axe for a halloween costume. First of all, why would a six year old try to purposefully hurt someone with an axe and secondly it was a plastic axe that could not do much harm. I am sure that this little boy had no idea what he was getting in trouble for. I know the schools need to promote safety, and it is important that they do this, but these things should be determined on a case by case basis. A six year old should not be suspended or worse for a plastic piece of his Halloween costume. If they think that is a weapon, then many other things could be weapons. For example, like someone stated earlier, school books. I think that in order to fix this confusion on what will not be tolerated, individual school districts should make their own lists and pass it around to their students so they realize what might be considered a weapon. Overall the Zero Tolerance Policy is a good idea, I just think it should be more planned out and explained to students and their families.
There are a few different opinions that I hold on this subject. Yes, I think that it important that a school mandates what is important to not have in a school, but then again I think that they do go too far sometimes. I remember from an article we read earlier this semester, that I six year old boy was suspended from school because on a plastic ax that he had on his fireman costume for Halloween. I mean how ridiculous is that?! A six year old who was excited about being a fireman for Halloween suddenly gets suspended for it. If that were my child I would throw a fit and march down to that school and tell them a piece a my mind.
To get back to my point, I agree that they should punish students for having lethal weapons, or for using any object as a weapon. However I also think that they need to re-define the terms of the Zero Tolerance Policy to not be so strict about things as simple as a plastic ax on a Halloween costume.
Three Strikes at its best:
My managers 9 year old son has a suspension tomorrow because his school follows a "three strikes" policy. What could a 9 year old have possibly done, you ask?
strike 1: banging on the bathroom door too loudly (disrupting other students)
strike 2: writing "pizza head" on another student's notebook
strike 3: borrowing a pencil from the teacher without asking (apparenlty she didn't hear him ask, and when she nodded it was to another students question, not his)
All I can say is "wow." I couldn't believe it when she told me. These policies make me so mad because, not only are these ridiculous "offenses," but suspending a kid does nothing good for the student. Students need to be IN SCHOOL in order to LEARN! arrrgh!
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