For my Issue Brief, I will be discussing the effects of zero-tolerance policies in schools and how policy change can force the education system to listen to the legitimate concerns of the people. The zero-tolerance policies that I am referring to are those defined by the School Discipline Support Initiative as “…school discipline policies and practices that mandate predetermined consequences, typically severe, punitive and exclusionary (e.g., out of school suspension and expulsion), in response to specific types of student misbehavior—regardless of the context or rationale for the behavior. ” Schools across the country have put these policies on pedestals as effective ways to keep their students in line, but what they fail to see is how it actually blinds them to the actual needs of the students that they should be trying to support. This is because schools that implement this policy for any kind of infraction use it as an excuse to dismiss what the students have to say. It allows administrators to ignore the cause of the problem and just give harsh punishments that they hope will scare off other students from making the same mistake.
When looking into the origins of this policy problem, it is clear that it is mainly inadvertently caused by misguided education officials who have mistaken harsh, no-tolerance policies for solutions to issues such as bullying, drugs, and even smaller issues such as attitude among others. These policies first began appearing in schools around the 1990’s in response to the similar policies implemented during the War on Drugs in the Reagan Era. Nowadays they are viewed as solutions to large problems such as bullying and drugs in schools, but what most fail to notice is that many schools also use the same policy for smaller misdemeanors, which does not promote the overall safety and wellbeing of the students.
When crafting a policy to help fix this issue, I would turn towards capacity builders initially before going towards a system change to fix the issue. I would first start with capacity builders so that more people can understand the issue, which will increase support for change. It will also encourage those who have had issues in the past with zero-tolerance policies to speak up and spread awareness about the issue. Once there is a large amount of people demanding change, a system change would then force the education system to re-evaluate their use of zero-tolerance policies and make changes in how they handle discipline in the future.
I really like the idea for your issue brief. I did not know that zero-tolerance policies were also used for smaller issues other than bullying or drugs, and it would be interesting to learn more about what some of those smaller issues are and how they are unfair. It would also be interesting to hear your opinion on how these issues should be resolved– Should zero-tolerance policies in schools be completely removed, or are they okay in some instances?
I really like your topic for the issues brief, I think that it is a topic that is not spoken about a lot. Looking at different school districts and comparing how they treat students or how they discipline them. Also adding that private vs public schools could very well be a big part of the problem in how schools discipline students. I also agree that by disciplining students most of the time they are not actually solving the problems. So what is a way for schools to understand their students better.
@ajy5275 Thank you! That question is actually one that I am planning on looking at more in depth. I would like to see if there are better options for discipline across all issues, or if the problem is just that zero-tolerance policies are being applied to smaller issues in schools.
@Yazmene Assadian Thank you! I felt the same way about the issue, as when I did research on it I came across stories of parents talking about their children being unfairly reprimanded for small problems, but it is not something that is heard of a lot. Your idea of looking into private vs. public schools is also really fascinating! I’m sure that there are differences in disciplinary policies when comparing the two and seeing what needs to be changed that would be great to talk about as well.