Zero tolerance raises alarms: Parents say Katy ISD overdisciplining students for minor offenses
We all want our children to be able to have a violence- and drug-free high school experience, to be safe and happy as they learn. There is certainly nothing wrong with trying to do what it takes to protect our children. Ever since the Columbine HS massacre on 4.20.99, school safety has taken on a new significance- and justifiably so.
What happens, though, when the process of protecting our children turns our schools into virtual police states? What happens when our children are presumed guilty and denied any opportunity to demonstrate their innocence? What happens when common sense and fair play cease to exist in our public schools?
Welcom to the brave new Bizarro World of "Zero Tolerance", which in the end is simply replacing one set of problems (drug use and/or violence) with another (adult intolerance and a complete refusal to think "outside the box").
KATY -- Bubbly and bright, Jewel Caillet considered herself "Miss Teen Spirit" until she was accused of drinking at a high school football game and subjected to 3 1/2 months in the Katy Independent School District's discipline school.
The 16-year-old says she was not drinking and was refused the opportunity to take a Breathalyzer test. A municipal court judge threw out the charge. But KISD still sent Jewel to the discipline school, where students cannot have a locker or pens because they could be used to hide drugs. Each day, Jewel was required to bare her midriff, ankles and feet for inspections to ensure she was not carrying contraband.
Stories like hers have become increasingly common.
As schools across the nation have attempted to crack down on violence and danger since the Columbine school shootings five years ago, they also have increased the number of offenses for which children can be sent to discipline schools, suspended, expelled, ticketed or even arrested.
A growing body of evidence suggests that these efforts have gone too far. Parents, some educators, and Republican and Democratic lawmakers are increasingly concerned that children are attending school in a police state.
Students routinely submit to being searched for drugs and weapons. In one surprise drug search last November, 14 police officers in Goose Creek, S.C., rushed into a high school, several with their guns drawn. They forced students to the ground and handcuffed several of them but found no drugs.
As school districts enforce local and state "zero tolerance" policies, stories of children being suspended for taking butter knives and nail files to school have become commonplace.
DO our children give up all rights and expectations of fair treatment once they pass through the schoolhouse doors? Should administrators have the right to sentence children to draconian punishments for "offenses" that in and of themselves are so minor as to be ridiculous? Should parents be locked out of the process?
I believe that the root of the problem is very simple: school administrators are so terrified of being sued for making the "wrong" decision that they have erred on the side of Kafkaesque enforcement.
Yes, we DO want our schools to be safe place for our children. Wanting and expecting that our children will be treated fairly and with a degree of compassion and common sense is not mutually exclusive to creating a safe environment. Of course, it IS a lot easier for administrators to draw a metaphorical line in the sand. "Zero tolerance" means no gray areas, no messy interpretations- no common sense is required. It means that suspicion of misbehavior and malfeasance is equivalent to a conviction. It means due process is non-existent. It also means that good kids can and do end up being treated as criminals for no good reason other than administrators feel the need to demonstrate their seriousness.
So, what IS the lesson that we're teaching our children here? Keep your head down, look straight, and don't attract ANY sort of attention to yourself- because you never know when you'll become an actor in a Kafka one-act play? That once you go through the schoolhouse doors, your life can be turned upside down at a moment's notice and without warning? That merely being accused is equivalent to a conviction? That you have no right or expectation of self-defense? That your parents have no control, no rights, and can do nothing to protect you?
I understand the position that school administrators find themselves in. What I cannot understand is the complete absence of perspective and common sense that is part and parcel of "Zero Tolerance". Our children deserve better. At the very least they deserve the same due process rights their parents are assured by our legal system.
These are SCHOOLS, y'all- not LABOR CAMPS. School administrators would do well to keep that in mind.
