Zero Tolerance Policy

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In all schools there are disciplinary actions that have to be followed to created a safe learning and classroom environment for the children. The zero tolerance policy is the most widely used and controversial that has come into effect. Zero tolerance means that when a student does something wrong there will be no mercy. There is no room for anyone to squeeze through no matter how small the issue may seem to be. Every case is treated the same no matter what age group or individual qualities of the student. Obviously this has both good and bad aspects of it. Zero tolerance seems very good in the broad picture. Sending a child to school, you know that he or she will be protected, especially because of this policy. Many educators tend to bend over backwards to give students breaks that they would not receive in the streets of society or the workplace. Kids that are taught less firm discipline end up being taught that there are no consequences for inappropriate behavior as long as it occurs on school grounds (Trump). The zero tolerance policy is very beneficial because it doesn’t allow room for anyone to slip through. Although there are many good things about this policy it also has a very negative side. “Schools across the United States have employed an unforgiving system of discipline in which children and youth are punished for punishment's sake. This disciplinary policy often disrupts the trust between students and adults in a school” (Browne-Dianis, 2012). This is exemplified by the story of the knife in a lunch box. A ten-year-old girl was eating lunch when she saw a small knife to cut her apple with that he mother had packed. Realizing that it might break the zero tolerance policy at her school she handed it into the teacher, who had said she did the right thing. The little girl was later expelled for it. Obviously the little girl was not trying to cut

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