History of IDEA
Jeannie Oakes, Founder and Former Director
Youth Voice in School Finance
NEW REPORT: Los Angeles' road to A-G for all
Without Dollars and Sense Powerpoint
Past Educational Opportunity Reports
Zero tolerance discipline policies: A failing idea
- 08-08-2011
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Blog by Marian Wright Edelman/Huffington Post
Many school children in America are on summer break right now, but here’s a pop quiz about discipline policies in our nation’s schools that’s just for grownups: Would you suspend a student from school for four months for sharpening his pencil without permission and giving the teacher a “threatening” look when asked to sit down? Would you expel a student from school for the rest of a school year for poking another student with a ballpoint pen during an exam? Would you expel a student from school permanently because her possession of an antibiotic violated your school’s zero-tolerance drug policy? Would you call the police, handcuff, and then expel a student who started a snowball fight on school grounds? If you answered ‘no’ to any of these questions because they sounded too unfair to be the result of an actual policy, give yourself a failing grade. All four are real examples of zero tolerance school discipline policies in Massachusetts—and there are thousands of stories like these throughout that state and across the country. (more...)
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