But the school did it first! 
Zero tolerance is overkill and it’s time for the idea to get smacked upside the head.
Randy Cassingham runs “This Is True” – a site with synopses of particularly stupid items that end up in mainstream news. He has quite a collection of Zero Tolerance entries.
My favorite is entitled: What Actually Works Against Zero Tolerance What Actually Works Against ZT – This is True
*Here’s a great example of what can be done, suggested by reader Stephen in Rhode Island:
There was an incident of Zero Tolerance enforcement by a local school principal (I don’t remember what the issue was but it was pretty dumb) that caused local parents to be upset. This principal refused to back down or even to discuss his decision with parents (and the local union representing school principals also chimed in support for the ZT decision).
A local city politician decided to do something about it: Citing the fact that a major factor in setting (higher) salary levels for school principals was the high level of responsibility that they had compared to ordinary teachers, he proposed that salaries for principals should be reduced because ZT policies had clearly reduced the level of responsibility that they had to deal with. The proposal actually was adopted by the local town council. Within one day, school principals in this town decided that perhaps blind adherence to ZT policies should be reviewed, and the principal involved in the original issue was meeting with parents to discuss the original decisions.*
If you really want to nuke 'em from orbit – propose this at the next council meeting. School budgets everywhere are taking massive hits, so you might even get local traction.
I think it is far more important to teach your kid some basic principles, such as honor and integrity. And the actions that I suggested are not unreasonable, they are pretty much the minimum needed to get a mindless, clueless bureaucracy to pay attention.
Teachers and administrators have to give classes, prepare lessons, run schools, look at texts, AND create a safe environment for students. We’re not supermen/women who have eyes in the back of our heads and/or psychic powers who can do all of the above at the same time while doing our jobs. We have jobs to do and students to protect, AND parents to talk to, and all this in spite of the fact that we’re mere mortals. The best way to protect students and create a safe learning environment is to lay down “zero tolerance laws” for fighting, IMHO. This makes it clear to students that no violence of any kind will be tolerated and that anyone taking part in it will be punished (students rightfully defending themselves will hopefully have that sorted out later and an appropriate response given in that case). We’re doing our best!
Then why do cases of a bigger kid pushing/punching/tripping a smaller kid always seem to be tolerated?
Because, in many cases, teachers don’t always know that that kind of thing is going on. If it is it should be dealt with as best as possible within the school (a talking to, detention, suspension, or expulsion as the case warrants) or with the police if needed. Also, keep in mind that your primary concern is YOUR kid, and you pay 100% of your full attention to YOUR kid, whereas teachers might have 30+ kids or more to pay attention to, all with their own problems that need our attention, and it isn’t always possible for us to pay as much attention to every single one of them and their problems (and our jobs) as we’d like to.
Again, we’re only human. We do the best we can.
Really?!?! Ripped off his scrotum? Jesus! What happened, exactly? Did the kid’s balls fall out? I assume they were still connected to his internal organs via tubes or whatever - were the balls just dangling there, out of the torn sack? Or did he actually rip the other boy’s balls off?
That’s…insane.
I don’t really see how it can be the best way. It does not even appear to work all that well: zero-tolerance policies are associated with declines in academic achievement and increases in student misconduct, school dropouts, and poor attitudes toward adults. We have had over 10 years to look at zero tolerance policies and in all that decade they have not worked. It seems unlikely that they will begin to work.
“No justice, no peace” is hackneyed and old but it is in this instance true. The best way to have a safe community is and has always been to know what is going on, do something about it, and be seen doing something about it.
This is nearly true: the research in this area indicates, not that teachers do not know what is going on, but that they do not pay attention to it until it has reached the point of near or actual violence – by which time it is of course too late. It also indicates that school administrators do not know where most bullying and other misbehavior goes on and so do not consider a structural approach or an evidence based approach.
The reason this zero tollerance does not work is because it is conditional. If one kid is hitting another that is to bad. If the second kid hits back then zero tollerance kicks in. This does not make sence!!!
If a school is going to state a zero tollerance then they need to have zero tollerance. And if any one on the school staff is aware that any child’s safety is in question then they need to act NOW! And not wait until the second child has to react. This is where schools and school administrators have and are failing.
My child has the same right as any other person to defend herself from physical violence, school policy to the contrary be damned.
That being said, I understand that kids lie a lot of times. I don’t want to give her free rein to pop someone for looking funny at her, and she shouldn’t goad anyone into fighting.
But if it is a clear-cut case of self-defense, it is totally irresponsible for the school to punish her, and I would withhold her from the school until I received some satisfaction.
I’ve learned to moderate things when it comes to crap that happens to ME since I’ve reached adulthood. I haven’t reached that level of enlightenment when it comes to people fucking with my kids.
True, and hopefully the school would come to that conclusion as well and make an appropriate decision regarding a student defending themselves.
Again, let me just say, I think (or hope, at least) that most teachers would try to get involved as best as possible and do their best to protect their students. They just can’t be everywhere at once paying attention to everything at the same time. I don’t think any teacher anywhere would disagree that creating a safe learning environment is of the utmost importance.
Someone else asked why it seems like bullying gets tolerated. I don’t know if it gets “tolerated” so much as the teacher intervenes, brokers a truce as best he can, and then (perhaps naively) thinks the incident is over when it may not be. In cases of physical violence, wouldn’t it be best to discipline both parties so as to give them time to cool off and, hopefully, resolve the matter before it gets out of hand? I can’t see how doing away with zero tolerance policies would be any good in a real-life school setting. Naturally, we can’t just say to any kid being bullied, “Go ahead and fight back.” That would just be asking for trouble for everyone involved.
I agree that sometimes zero tolerance policies can go overboard, though in many, if not most, cases the administrators have the students’ safety in mind. I remember an example of a zero tolerance policy given to us in a classroom discipline seminar I took during a workshop once. There had been racial incidents at one school and, thus, the principal felt it prudent to ban shirts with “inflammatory racial messages.” One kid got expelled for wearing a Jeff Foxworthy “you might be a redneck” shirt on the grounds that “redneck” might be seen as potentially offensive and could lead to violence. The student refused to change his shirt or turn it inside out so he was suspended for a few days and a lawsuit ensued… Was it an example of political correctness run amok? Maybe. But I can understand the principal wanting to avoid violence at any cost. Sometimes the only thing you can do is to impose a blanket policy.
Here’s some background on that case:
http://www.splcenter.org/intel/intelreport/article.jsp?aid=28
http://www.cir-usa.org/articles/100.html
Not the same as bullying, but you can at least see why some zero tolerance policies are, in my mind, justified.
Are you kidding me? I can’t wait to hear what you suggest.
Jesus, I actually agree with Clothahump. Zero tolerance policies in schools are used by moronic teachers too lazy to do any investigating into what actually happened. Teaching your kid to accept a bullshit punishment is a terrible idea. The only way these stupid policies are removed is by getting parents to make the idiots in charge of instituting them as miserable as possible.
By the way, your kid’s first mistake was getting caught. If he’s playing football, there’s easier ways to get your own back without being seen: the stoods at the back of football boots are ideal for painful stamping on toes.
If a coworker was bullying me I could go to those above my head and tell them what is happening, and given that I’d whatever proof and documentation that they would need, the bully would be the one disciplined. I would not be blamed for what happened and I would not be made to feel that the abuse was somehow justified.
Back in middle school, I was blamed for being (emotionally, not physically) bullied and told repeatedly that if I didn’t react it wouldn’t happen. Nobody ever did a damn thing about the way that I was the one that was picked on by what felt like the entire school. I’m still not sure how I got through without killing myself. Blame the victim was all that happened, ever.
The only difference is that I was a kid then, and an adult now. Why should that make such a difference as to why I was bullied? Why was it my fault then, but it would be the bully’s fault now? Why would it be appropriate to punish me as a kid for being abused and tell me it was my fault, while now would be made clear that I did nothing to deserve such treatment?
Zero tolerance is the purest bullshit.
This is an interesting topic that belongs in great debates I think.
I would really like to hear some suggestions from you or anyone else as to what could replace the zero tolerance policy. A big schoolyard-wide battle royale wherein every bully and every kid being bullied goes to the quad and dukes it out for 60 minutes? Afterwards we’ll see who is still standing. Sound good? Didn’t think so.
No, I’m not kidding you. As a teacher, I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if a student told me he was being bullied and I said, “Go ahead, kick his ass.” Would that solve the problem? Probably not…most likely it would result in that student getting hurt even more, not to mention that it would be unethical for a teacher to suggest something like that.
I’d really like to see some educators weigh in on this. This is a difficult topic and I think perhaps many people don’t grasp what a thankless position teachers find themselves in in this case. We don’t want your kid to be bullied, but we also don’t want violence of any kind to happen, justified or not. That’s not good for anyone.
That’s kind of an overreaction, isn’t it? The issue is that a child is not permitted to land a physical blow including defending himself against assault. That’s the problem with a ZTP. “Is it illegal to hit a man over the head with a mallet?” is legally distinguishable from “Is it illegal to hit a man who is lunging at you with a drawn knife over the head with a mallet?”
It’s no different than on the streets. If someone attacks me on the street, I can’t “go to the quad” and battle it out with the guy, but I am allowed to defend myself, and my child has that very same basic right.
Let’s say that a bully approaches my child on the playground unprovoked, throws sand in her face, tackles her, and begins to punch her. What should her appropriate response be in this situation? Should she lie there and risk serious injury until she is rescued by the administration? What action can she take to ensure her safety while complying with school rules?
To be fair, I highly doubt teachers have fuck all to do with creation of policy. And if they don’t enforce policy to the letter they’re in danger of losing their jobs.