Zero-tolerance policies were born from the Gun Free Schools Act passed by Congress in 1994, which required a one-year expulsion for any student who brings a firearm to school.
The Columbine massacre of 1999 put tighter screws on the law. Bringing anything that is seen as a “dangerous weapon” would carry a suspension or expulsion.
Everyone knows such policies will not stop another Columbine happening. But parents demand that schools make campuses safe for their kids. Those words are law.
The saddest part is what happens to the kids that are expelled. It creates “a school-to-prison pipeline”. Expelled students rarely return to school, drop-out and eventually, fill prisons. 68% of Michigan prisoners are high school dropouts.
But Resler said, “I’m sure we’ve got many other devious kids in the district who are trying to figure out how to duct-tape a spoon and fork to their switchblades right now.”
Give me a break.
It’s now time to ban pens and pencils. They are sharp and can be deadly, ha!
Let’s concentrate on teaching kids. Getting them to see value in life. Bans never worked as well as getting kids to think wisely.
Look what’s happening:
In a food fight at a Chicago school, students tossed an apple, threw a cookie, plunked an unsuspecting kid with an orange. Within minutes, dozens of middle-school students joined in the fun and spattered some adults. By the end of the day, 25 of the students, ages 11 to 15, had been rounded up, arrested, taken from school and put in jail. A spokesman for the Chicago police said the charges were reckless conduct, a misdemeanor.
Now parents are questioning what seem to them like the criminalization of adolescent pranks, and the lasting legal and psychological impact of the arrests.
The kids were allegedly “handcuffed, slammed in a wagon, had their mug shots taken and treated like real criminals.” That was eight hours in jail.
This is utter nonsense. The easiest way to make criminals out of kids.
We need to ask: How do you define a child? Why do you say “growing years”? How is it there is no difference between how we treat hardened criminals and kids?
