Zero Tolerance Policies In Schools

School districts across the country use discipline policies that take students out of the classroom and into the criminal justice system at startling rates, this is known as the school-to-prison pipeline. Statistics show that these policies extremly target students of color and those with a history of abuse, neglect, poverty or learning disabilities. It is difficult to identify the exact reason for the pipeline, but the three main causes are discrimination, lack of opportunities, and zero-tolerance policies. Our society tends to discriminate students who grow up in poverty. They are often seen as a threat, because of their race or background. As a result, they are incarcerated more often. According to SentencingProject.org “American Indian
Rather than promoting a safe environment of learning, and opportunity, schools have made it almost impossible to tell the difference between a school yard and a jail yard. Due to “zero tolerance” policies, police presents, and relying on suspensions and expulsions for minor infractions, students are missing out of their education. There once was time when disciplinary issues could be resolved by school administrators, but now students are either suspended or expelled on the spot. Students who have never been suspended or expelled are at less of a risk for incarceration than those that have been. There are approximately 3.3 million suspensions and over 100,000 expulsions each year. Zero tolerance policies were first adopted in the mid 1990s, since then the rates have been on a constant climb. Even though, the rates of school violence has been declining, suspension and expulsion rates are still rising. Zero tolerance policies have especially affected elementary and middle school children. “Seven of every thousand pre-schoolers are expelled from preschool programs, over three times the rate of expulsions in grades K-12” according to SentencingProject.org. This is not just bad for the students that get expelled but for everyone. Turning schools into “secure environments”, with school police, and staff that looks down on every mistake you
Would you want to send your child to school where they are not allowed to make mistakes, and simply be a child? Children need people who are going to protect them and stand up them, because they can not do that for themselves. School boards, parents, and teachers have failed at providing equal education opportunities for all