Florida Middle Schoolers Hit Hard by Zero Tolerance
Middle school expulsions agitate debate on zero tolerance
Updated 25 Feb 2004: School board meets, retains policies. Details at bottom of post.
The Inverness School Board has expelled 19 students so far this year. Only 4 were high school students.
The effect of zero tolerance on middle school students is among the topics the School Board is expected to take up Tuesday as it gets its first shot to discuss the upcoming 2004-05 Student Code of Conduct, the document that sets out disciplinary rules for the district.
School officials discussing updates to the code have targeted the issue. They have suggested extending to middle schools the same language in the code which allows elementary school principals to exercise discretion in choosing punishment for students found with alcohol and drugs.
That’s an excellent idea. Allow principals to use discretion and evaluate an infraction based on the particulars of the specific offense and the individuals who committed them. Not everybody is in favor of allowing principals this discretion though.
A retired middle school teacher, board Chairwoman Ginger Bryant, said she was not interested in loosening the strong zero tolerance message for middle school children.
“I don’t hardly think so,” [”don’t hardly”? Ouch] she said. “Look at the kids who have been bringing alcohol and weapons into our schools. It’s middle school children.”
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“I think it’s needed,” she said. “Middle school children have got to learn that they face consequences.”
Bryant, like many others, just doesn’t get it. A zero tolerance policy isn’t necessary in order to mete out discipline. If a student commits an offense where expulsion is appropriate expulsion is possible with or without a zero tolerance policy. All zero tolerance really does is hogtie administrators into higher punishments when a less severe corrective action is warranted.
School Board debates rules of conduct
School Board members considered revising the zero tolerance policies that are driving middle schoolers out of the system but decided not to do so. Reasons cited were a desire to see these violation cases at the school board level instead of having them handled by school principals and a need to be more restrictive since student violations in middle school are increasing.
When something as important as the ability to send juveniles to Court is involved it should be the burden of teachers to be trained in the Phsyc. of handling Juveniles. Too much discretion is given to teachers to decide the fate of students who in other times and places would merely be considered ‘juveniles’. If teachers are unable to gain the respect and attention of students then maybe there should be a Zero Tolerance of Teachers with the students exercising the power. I, for one, am beginning to suspect that some teachers never were juveniles nor did they attend school. Obviously, the students have no defense against a vindictive Teacher who at his/her option can make a momentus decision involving another persons life. Life, Libety, and the Pursuit of Happiness becomes kind of a vague expression when the power is held in the hands of mere teachers who are, after all, onlyly public employees and not factors of the law. Possibly some could be transferred to the Highway Dept. and learn how to lay asphalt…that is, if they are cabable.