Impact of Zero Tolerance Policies on K-12 Education

2019 ◽  
pp. 334-350
Author(s):  
R. Neal McIntyre Jr.
Keyword(s):  
Restorative Justice ◽  
Zero Tolerance ◽  
School To Prison Pipeline ◽  
K 12 ◽  
Lower Performing Students ◽  
Detrimental Impact ◽  
Out Of School

Since the mid-1990s, zero tolerance policies have been utilized in K-12 education as a means of addressing and deterring acts of violence on school grounds. While originally designed to address serious infractions, such as possession of weapons and drugs in schools, these policies have been expanded to include less serious offenses, such as fighting, absences, and other minor disturbances. Critics argue that this punitive approach has not only led to the inconsistent use and application of these policies but has also been used as a means of forcing lower performing students and minorities out of school by criminalizing minor acts thereby creating a school-to-prison pipeline. Research has identified that these policies are ineffective and has had a detrimental impact on kids both in school and beyond, yet they are still popular. This chapter examines these various issues and harmful consequences of zero tolerance while offering recommendations for schools to implement restorative justice practices, or a similar philosophy, in their response to wrongdoings by students.

Impact of Zero Tolerance Policies on K-12 Education

2021 ◽  
pp. 416-432
Author(s):  
R. Neal McIntyre Jr.
Keyword(s):  
Restorative Justice ◽  
Zero Tolerance ◽  
School To Prison Pipeline ◽  
K 12 ◽  
Lower Performing Students ◽  
Detrimental Impact ◽  
Out Of School

Since the mid-1990s, zero tolerance policies have been utilized in K-12 education as a means of addressing and deterring acts of violence on school grounds. While originally designed to address serious infractions, such as possession of weapons and drugs in schools, these policies have been expanded to include less serious offenses, such as fighting, absences, and other minor disturbances. Critics argue that this punitive approach has not only led to the inconsistent use and application of these policies but has also been used as a means of forcing lower performing students and minorities out of school by criminalizing minor acts thereby creating a school-to-prison pipeline. Research has identified that these policies are ineffective and has had a detrimental impact on kids both in school and beyond, yet they are still popular. This chapter examines these various issues and harmful consequences of zero tolerance while offering recommendations for schools to implement restorative justice practices, or a similar philosophy, in their response to wrongdoings by students.

The Real School Safety Problem

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aaron Kupchik
Keyword(s):  
Police Officers ◽  
School Safety ◽  
Zero Tolerance ◽  
Safe Schools ◽  
Original Research ◽  
School Security ◽  
Safety Problem ◽  
The Real ◽  
K 12 ◽  
The U.S

Since the 1990s, K-12 schools across the U.S. have changed in important ways in an effort to maintain safe schools. They have added police officers, surveillance cameras, zero tolerance policies, and other equipment and personnel, while increasingly relying on suspension and other punishments. Unfortunately, we have implemented these practices based on assumptions that they will be effective at maintaining safety and helping youth, not based on evidence. The Real School Safety Problem addresses this problem in two ways. One, it provides a clear discussion of what we know and what we don’t yet know about the school security and punishment practices and their effects on students and schools. Two, it offers original research that extends what we know in important ways, showing how school security and punishment affects students, their families, their schools and their communities years into the future. Schools are indeed in crisis. But the real school safety problem is not that students are either out of control or in danger. Rather, the real school safety problem is that our efforts to maintain school safety have gone too far and in the wrong directions. As a result, we over-police and punish students in a way that hurts students, their families and their communities in broad and long-lasting ways.

The Movement Expands

2021 ◽  
pp. 212-236
Author(s):  
Mark R. Warren
Keyword(s):  
Restorative Justice ◽  
Zero Tolerance ◽  
Black Girls ◽  
School Site ◽  
Liberatory Education ◽  
Gender Nonconforming ◽  
Girls Of Color ◽  
Role Of Teachers ◽  
And Gender

Chapter 8 examines the expansion of the movement to new issues and newly forceful constituents. It charts the rise of the police-free schools movement and discusses the influence of the Movement for Black Lives. It documents the assertion of voice and leadership by Black girls; girls of color; and gender nonconforming students in the movement, highlighting the intersectional ways that they experience the school-to-prison pipeline. Finally, it examines the role of teachers as allies to the movement and highlights efforts to implement restorative justice as an alternative to zero tolerance. It emphasizes the need to connect restorative justice to school-site organizing that connects teachers with students and parents in ways that transform relationships and create liberatory education.

Disrupting the school-to-prison pipeline: Strategies to reduce the risk of school-based zero tolerance policies resulting in juvenile justice involvement.

2016 ◽  
pp. 257-275 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian P. Daly ◽  
Aimee K. Hildenbrand ◽  
Emily Haney-Caron ◽  
Naomi E. S. Goldstein ◽  
Meghann Galloway ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Juvenile Justice ◽  
Zero Tolerance ◽  
School To Prison Pipeline ◽  
School Based

scholarly journals Principal discretion and the use of out-of-school suspension in public high schools

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Seth Harrell
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
High School Principals ◽  
Zero Tolerance ◽  
Student Discipline ◽  
School Suspension ◽  
Study Results ◽  
School Suspensions ◽  
Student Misbehavior ◽  
Principal Decision Making ◽  
Out Of School

The purpose of this mixed methods study was to analyze school principal's perception and use of out-of-school suspension as a consequence to address student misbehavior. This study was conducted on current acting high school principals in the southeast region of a Midwestern state. Participants completed a survey that consisted of items related to principal decision making as well as the use of zero-tolerance policies to determine discipline outcomes. Survey items were designed to determine how out-of-school suspensions are used in relation to the use of principal discretion and zero-tolerance policies. Principals in this study were given the opportunity to participate in follow-up interviews where principals were asked more specific questions about their use of out-ofschool suspension as a form of student discipline. Study results found that principals felt the use of out-of-school suspension were an effective consequence to address student misbehavior. Principals felt they had the autonomy to use their discretion to determine the most appropriate consequence to address student misbehavior in their respective schools. Opinions were mixed on the use of zero-tolerance policies. A majority of surveyed participants felt that zero-tolerance policies were an effective method used to address student misbehavior. However, principals who were interviewed preferred to use their discretion over zero-tolerance policies when determining the most appropriate consequence because principals wanted to be able to consider all of the circumstances of a discipline situation. Principals concluded that out-of-school suspensions are necessary in-order to protect the learning environment for all students; however, there are inconsistencies in the use of such suspensions. These inconsistencies are present through the use of principal discretion and decision making, the use of zero-tolerance policies, the length of the suspension, and the unnecessary use of suspensions for minor discipline infractions.

Students' Out-of-School Writing Practices in an Educational Facebook Application

2014 ◽  
pp. 154-170
Author(s):  
Thor Gibbins ◽  
Christine Greenhow
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
New Media ◽  
Leisure Time ◽  
Reciprocal Relationship ◽  
School Practices ◽  
Writing Practices ◽  
K 12 ◽  
Media Practices ◽  
Out Of School

In this chapter, the authors seek to help educators understand trends in students' writing outside of the classroom, with a particular emphasis on illuminating students' purposes and practices in writing within social media spaces. The authors synthesize current research on students' Internet and social media practices and offer a case study from their own research on students' writing within an educational Facebook application called Hot Dish. This chapter seeks to elucidate the reciprocal relationship between students out of school writing using popular social media and their in-school practices. Ultimately, the authors seek to help readers make connections between what students are doing with new media in their leisure time and the improvement of students' writing performance in K-12 settings, believing there may be important but under-explored synergies.

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