Ending Zero Tolerance: The Crisis of Absolute School

Ending Zero Tolerance: The Crisis of Absolute School Discipline (Families, Law, and Society)

In the era of zero tolerance, we are flooded with stories about schools issuing draconian punishments for relatively innocent behavior. One student was suspended for chewing a Pop-Tart into the shape of a gun. Another was expelled for cursing on social media from home. Suspension and expulsion rates have doubled over the past three decades as zero tolerance policies have become the normal response to a host of minor infractions that extend well beyond just drugs and weapons. Students from all demographic groups have suffered, but minority and special needs students have suffered the most. On average, middle and high schools suspend one out of four African American students at least once a year.Â

The effects of these policies are devastating. Â Just one suspension in the ninth grade doubles the likelihood that a student will drop out. Fifty percent of students who drop out are subsequently unemployed. Eighty percent of prisoners are high school drop outs. The risks associated with suspension and expulsion are so high that, as a practical matter, they amount to educational death penalties, not behavioral correction tools. Most important, punitive discipline policies undermine the quality of education that innocent bystanders receive as wellâ€”the exact opposite of what schools intend.Â Â

Ending Zero ToleranceÂ answers the calls of grassroots communities pressing for integration and increased education funding with a complete rethinking of school discipline. Derek Black, a former attorney with the Lawyersâ€™ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, weaves stories about individual students, lessons from social science, and the outcomes of courts cases to unearth a shockingly irrational system of punishment. While schools and legislatures have proven unable and unwilling to amend their failing policies, Ending Zero ToleranceÂ argues for constitutional protections to check abuses in school discipline and lays out theories by which courts should re-engage to enforce studentsâ€™ rights and support broader reforms.

Country	USA
Author	Derek W. Black
Binding	Hardcover
Brand	Derek W Black
EAN	9781479877027
Feature	Ending Zero Tolerance The Crisis of Absolute School Discipline Families Law and Society
ISBN	1479877026
Label	NYU Press
Manufacturer	NYU Press
NumberOfItems	1
NumberOfPages	256
PublicationDate	2016-09-13
Publisher	NYU Press
ReleaseDate	2016-09-13
Studio	NYU Press

Ending Zero Tolerance: The Crisis of Absolute School Discipline (Families, Law, and Society)

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