Zero Tolerance Makes Zero Sense
It was December 11th of 2004 when Porsche Brown left for Thomas Holme elementary school. It was a very cold Philadelphia morning and Christmas lights lit the street while she walked to the bus stop. After arriving at school she heads to her class, sits at her desk and opened her backpack to begin laying her learning utensils on the table. It isn’t until Porsches teacher walks by her that she notices something in Porsches backpack, something I’ve used in school since I was 5 years old and you have to. The teacher then notified the school’s principal, who called the police, and when they arrived they didn’t hesitate to put Porsche Brown in handcuffs for possessing a pair of scissors. These weren’t special scissors, bigger scissors, sharper scissors, just a normal pair of scissors you would see a fourth grader using. After being handcuffed the police took the traumatized girl into custody putting her in the back of a dark patrol wagon and driving her to the police station many hours before notifying her parents. Porsche is just one of many elementary students who are over punished every year for something deemed ‘intolerable’ but there’s a line of common sense that should be drawn here. The ‘Zero Tolerance’ policy should be taken out of effect in elementary schools to prevent any further unjust acts against youths in our public education school systems.
Since the 1980’s the ‘Zero Tolerance’ policy has been in effect for all American public schools and was highly legislated after 1994’s gun free school act. This arrangement insures all public schools must punish any student no matter how old, for any action that goes against the policy, the punishment usually results in suspension or expulsion, and is targeted mainly on weapons, violent activity, and drug activity. Although this policy started over 30 years ago, no evidence has been shown that it actually prevents or decreases crime activity in...