Zero tolerance policy is a school policy that gives predetermined punishments for particular wrongs in readiness of application upon the commitment of the mistake. Zero tolerance policy does not consider the seriousness of the wrong, the situation that led to the commitment of the wrong and the mitigating circumstances. Discretionary practices in school’s discipline and justice is an alternative to the zero tolerance policy and can also be used to restore good conducts in public schools. Discretionary practices tend to look at the depth of the wrong doings of students and punish them according to the level of the mistakes done. Students are not kept out of school due to suspensions and expulsions with these practices. In this paper, a discussion and comparison of zero tolerance and discretional practices in public schools is given.
Several school discipline and justice policies are for punishments that include suspensions and expulsions, and a consequent forceful banishment of students from classrooms. There are various approaches for management of students’ behavior other than expulsions and suspensions. Studies have linked suspensions and expulsions to reducing school performances in terms of return on grades. Various zero tolerance and other practices and policies that prioritize punishments in public schools have been challenged by educators, students, community leaders and parents. School to prison pipeline is on the edge of being ended through the efforts of the parties mentioned above who call for the implementation of the alternatives to zero tolerance policies (Black, 2016). On the other hand, discretional discipline policies promote justice in public schools. Discretional policies are associated with the discriminatory discipline. With these policies, all students of any race, gender, national origin, and color are given equal benefits of any educational programs and activities in the public schools. Discretional practices in schools are of more advantage to the restoration and maintenance of discipline in school as compared to the zero tolerance policies. Therefore, discretionary discipline policies should govern public school and classroom discipline.
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Both the zero tolerance policies and discretionary practices aim at restoring discipline in public schools. In both cases, various disciplinary measures are used to ensure correction of mistakes of students. However, zero tolerant policies are more of punishment based rather than correction based. They tend to be rigid compared to discretional policies. There are many suspensions and expulsions for mere crimes in the zero tolerant policies. The zero tolerance policies are often based on discrimination since there are many cases where students of a given race are given disproportionate punishments as compared to others (Black, 2016). The disparities are often not due to the misbehavior of students of a given race, but due to a negative profiling with respect to their racial and ethnic makeup. An example is where students of color are given more suspensions and expulsions for the same mistakes compared to white students. Discretional policies, however, have a strategic way of restoring discipline regardless of race and other differential factors. There are no suspensions and expulsions of students in the discretionary discipline policies as there are in zero tolerant policies (Manley-Casimir & Moffat, 2012).
The zero tolerance policies have various consequences in the long term. These consequences include but are not limited to children being labeled criminals, loss of opportunities for education for the youth due to school dropouts, and misbehavior due to educational and emotional needs of the children. Discretionary discipline policies tend to reduce the widening gap between low and high-income students (Manley-Casimi & Moffat, 2012). Through these policies, there are reduced major punishments for minor misconducts. This leads to reduced risk of school dropping out and involvement in the justice system since many students will not be sent out of school for their misbehavior but rather corrected and left to continue learning.
Discretionary discipline policies are leaner centered compared to the zero tolerance policies since the former encourage staying in school and students continue with their studies as opposed to the later where they are suspended or expelled. The Constitution of the United States encourages students to achieve quality education hence the discretionary discipline policy aligns best with it. Regarding ethical and moral superiority, discretionary practices are more sensible compared to zero tolerance practices since discrimination is discouraged and good ethical and moral practices enhanced among the students. Education should be majorly purposed to instill vast knowledge in the learners. The knowledge should be a wide range of aspects from academic to social. Education should serve the best interest of the learners.
Zero tolerance policies in public schools should be eradicated and discretionary discipline policies adopted. This will enable students to correct their mistakes and encourage them to continue their education to higher levels.
References
Black, D. W. (2016). Ending zero tolerance: The crisis of absolute school discipline . Publisher: New York: New York University Press, [2016]
Manley-Casimir, M. E., & Moffat, A. D. (2012). Administrative discretion in education . Publisher: Calgary: Brush Education
