Zero Tolerance
I believe that the rules and policy of zero tolerance should be changed. This policy allows for some students that may be doing a good thing or something that they did not know the would get in trouble for to get suspended or expelled. For example, in my education class, we hard of a case where a five year old student found a razor blade at their bus stop and brought it to school to show the teacher. As a result, the students was expelled and had to transfer schools. I believe that there are instances where zero tolerance is appropriate but I also believe that they administration or principal should also be looking at the circumstances and situation of why the students brought into school what they did. There are going to be times when they circumstances are not in the students favor and they should be suspended or expelled for the many students that are being punished and having their lives changed forever they need to given a chance to share what they were doing and why they were doing it. The administration and principals need to give the time to hear what the problem was and why the student did what they did because otherwise you are, in some cases, punishing good deeds, which is not the image to be sending to students. For young elementary school children to be expelled an have to transfer to another school is a huge problem. The students should be in the school they have been planning to go to unless they do something drastically wrong. Having such strict rules effects the students that slip up once more than the students that actually need that type of guidance. Also, expelling or giving a student an out-of-school suspension simply gives the students more of an opportunity to get caught up in the wrong crowds with drugs and other bad influences. If you want to punish a student make it so that student has to cooperate in a community service and help others. This way they will be building themselves as a person and helping out their community.
This post was submitted by Ashley Hoch.
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Good insight and you will find after doing more research that the Zero Tolerance policies have created a pipeline to prison. Particularly with 15 year old males who seem to have a propensity for immature judgement and behavior. We found ourselves in such a situation and the school/administration became the enemy out to make an example of my son. One cannot imagine the ramifications of these actions until you are in the midst of it. As a result, we ended up homeschooling. If you are in the right area, you will find an entire subculture of support and assistance…..along with opportunities for learning that we had not even imagined to exist. Put it takes the entire family to put forth effort to make this solution work. We were not about to allow our son to become part of the statistics.