Article on Zero Tolerance at schools
Tom Turner
This appeared in last weekend's Globe and Mail. It's a good read,
especially for teachers and school administrators. I would call it
"educational".
It never ceases to amaze me how many teachers and administrators are
afraid to think and exercise discretion when confronted with a problem
in the classroom. It's a new take on the old system of punishing the
whole class when an individual won't admit to misbehaving. I call it
"brain in a jar" syndrome.
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Zero tolerance and zero sense: the Fall River Rebellion and other
dastardly school-yard crimes
MARGARET WENTE
Globe and Mail
At 12, Danielle Boyce has built up a spotless academic record. She's got
a 93 average. She's the star of Grade 7 English, plays trumpet and
piano, and has acquired valuable conflict- resolution skills as a peer
helper.
Twelve days ago, it all came crashing down. She was suspended from
school for the offence of "snowing"
Snowing? Danielle, who lives in Fall River, just outside of Halifax,
explains; "Snowing is basically anything to do with snow that they find
aggressive."
Like most other schools in Canada, George P. Vanier Junior High has a
zero- tolerance policy that bans unwanted or aggressive behaviour. The
punishment is automatic suspension.
I asked Danielle to describe the snowing, which occurred during lunch
break and involved three of her friends.
"Kayla pushed Kyle into the snow," she said. "Then Kyle gave her a
push, and she gave me a push, and I gave Karla a push." No one
complained at the time. But, later, a teacher spotted suspicious signs
of snow on Kayla's jacket and reported her. Kayla, and then Kyle,
Karla and Danielle, were summoned to the vice-principal's office for
close questioning. Had they thrown snow? No. Had they pushed each other
into the snow? Yes. "He told us it was against the zero-tolerance policy
and suspended us." They were told not to report to school the next day.
Danielle went home in tears. She thought the suspension was unfair. So
did her parents, and so did her classmates. The local papers came round
to do a story on the Fall River Four. Some students pinned up the
articles around the school, and were suspended for that. And soon, the
Fall River Rebellion was under way.
Danielle's father, Steve, who was once on the school board, describes
Fall River as a town so mannerly that kids don't even swear in the
school yard. Nonetheless, the school has meted out more than 150
suspensions this year, for offences ranging from untied shoelaces to
hat-wearing inside to unauthorized piggyback rides. Bear hugs are
banned, as are pats on the back that are too hard, and most other kinds
of physical contact.
"We just can't take it any more," said Rosemary Buote, who's in Grade 8.
"We want to be able to go to school and be able to hug your friend good
morning."
By the end of last week, the kids decided the only route to go was civil
disobedience. Over the weekend, Rosemary whipped up some protest signs.
"We want a school not a prison," they read, and "We want hugs not
suspensions." The march was planned for first thing Monday morning.
George P. Vanier may strike you as a wacky place, but it's not.
Zero-tolerance policies are being enforced with zealous mindlessness all
across North America. In Gimli, Man., the elementary school issued a ban
on hugging, because it compromises corridor safety and might lead to
inappropriate touching. In Toronto, you can't take Tylenol to school
because it violates the school board's zero-tolerance policy on drugs.
The son of a friend of mine was thrown out of school for three days
because he had a small Swiss Army knife in his pocket. A few weeks ago,
a kid at a progressive alternative school made a stupid joke to a friend
about wanting to "kill" the principal. He was overheard by a teacher and
arrested for uttering death threats, then handcuffed and carted off to
the police
station. The kid is 13.
In the United States, kids have been suspended for possessing staplers
and nail clippers. A nine-year-old was suspended for two days after he
composed a fortune-cookie message as a class exercise. It said:
"You will die with honour." In Kansas, a 13-year-old was suspended for
racial harassment and intimidation after he sketched a Confederate flag
on a piece of paper. The school had listed the flag as a hate symbol.
What's going on here?
Wherever zero tolerance reigns, zero sense is never far behind. It's
true for campus speech codes and sex-harassment rules, and now it's true
in kindergarten as well. Schools have been gripped by panic over safety
and hysteria over violence. Some are also gripped by a puritanical
certainty that deviance and evil lurk everywhere in the young human
soul, and must be nipped in the bud. Today's bully could be tomorrow's
mass murderer, today's hugger tomorrow's sex fiend. A kid who plays in
snow might throw it, and might put a rock in it next. Unruly behaviour
is a slippery slope to Columbine.
Besides, it's easier to just enforce the law than try to make
distinctions between what's important and what's not.
On Monday, Danielle, Rosemary and 200 other kids staged their peaceful
demonstration outside their school. The principal locked them out and
drew the blinds. To get back in, they had to sign their names on a list.
The rebellion was suppressed, and the principal is hanging tough.
"They're not going to review the policy," says Danielle sadly.
The Fall River Rebellion was big news in Halifax. And Danielle learned a
big lesson, about respect for authority, the rule of law, and the wisdom
of adults. I suspect it's not the one the school set out to teach her.
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