Disadvantages Of Zero Tolerance
Since the 1990’s students have been protected under the Zero Tolerance Policy that every school has adopted. In Henry Giroux’s book Education and the Crisis of Public Values, he discusses the disadvantages of this policy. According to Girox “”Zero Tolerance” does little more than legitimate the mindless punishment of poor whites and students of color by criminalizing behavior as trivial as violating a dress code” (Girox, 2015). The initial reason zero tolerance was brought up was to stop school shootings from happening. In some cases students who are of low socioeconomic status or are of students of a different race tend to be “assaulted by the police, handcuffed, taken away in police cars, and in some cases imprisoned. (Girox, 2015) Although
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According to the Vera Institute of Justice “Middle school students, black youth are suspended nearly 4 times more often than white youth, and Latino youth are roughly twice as likely to be suspended or expelled than white youth” (Jacob Kang-Brown). While students many times are suspended and welcomed back to school only a couple days after being suspended. Most of these students’ suspensions were uncalled for but were placed under the zero tolerance policy, because the school felt that the student was a danger to others. “Nationally, only 5 percent of expulsions and out-of-school suspensions lasting a week or longer involve possession of a weapon while 43 percent are for insubordination” (Jacob Kang-Brown). By having such a high percentage of students who are being suspended under the zero tolerance policy for something as simple insubordination it raises the question of race. Are teachers using the Pedagogy of Poverty that Gregory Michie discusses in his text We don’t need another Hero? Teachers are using the teaching strategy of constant teacher and student compliance, when the students of low socioeconomic status are refusing the fall into this pedagogy teachers are getting fed up and forcing suspension onto them (Michie, 2012). Overall the zero-tolerance policies “unfairly target students of color, who already often faced stiffer punishment than their White counterparts for similar offenses” (Michie,
According to the Vera Institute of Justice “Middle school students, black youth are suspended nearly 4 times more often than white youth, and Latino youth are roughly twice as likely to be suspended or expelled than white youth” (Jacob Kang-Brown). While students many times are suspended and welcomed back to school only a couple days after being suspended. Most of these students’ suspensions were uncalled for but were placed under the zero tolerance policy, because the school felt that the student was a danger to others. “Nationally, only 5 percent of expulsions and out-of-school suspensions lasting a week or longer involve possession of a weapon while 43 percent are for insubordination” (Jacob Kang-Brown). By having such a high percentage of students who are being suspended under the zero tolerance policy for something as simple insubordination it raises the question of race. Are teachers using the Pedagogy of Poverty that Gregory Michie discusses in his text We don’t need another Hero? Teachers are using the teaching strategy of constant teacher and student compliance, when the students of low socioeconomic status are refusing the fall into this pedagogy teachers are getting fed up and forcing suspension onto them (Michie, 2012). Overall the zero-tolerance policies “unfairly target students of color, who already often faced stiffer punishment than their White counterparts for similar offenses” (Michie,