Zero tolerance policies are a popular political tool enacted by many school districts.  In practice, however, these guidelines usually translate into “zero intelligence” policy.  Here are some examples:

Facts About Zero-Tolerance School Policies

• The Strategy Center, a California-based civil rights group that tracks zero tolerance school policies found that at least 12,000 tickets were issued to tardy or truant students by Los Angeles Police Department and school security officers in 2008. These tickets tarnished students’ records and brought them into the juvenile court system, with fines of up to $250 for repeat offenders.
• A class action lawsuit was filed by the New York Civil Liberties union in January of 2010 against the city for using “excessive force” in middle school and high schools. A 12-year-old sixth-grader, identified in the lawsuit as M.M., was arrested in March of 2009 for doodling on her desk at the Hunts Point School.

News Briefs About Zero Tolerance School Policies

Suspended over a bag of chips
In an unusual twist on zero tolerance policies, a girl in Ohio was suspended and barred from attending her senior prom for bringing a bag of chips to school. Apparently, another student had a severe corn allergy, and the girl, who had been given the bag of chips by a friend during the morning school bus ride, didn’t realize the chips contained corn. The girl was heartbroken about having to miss the prom. ‘They’re taking away a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” said her mom. (The Week, 5-3-2024, p. 6)

Suspended for doing the right thing
In Georgia, a middle school student was suspended for 4 days after telling his teacher that he found a knife in his backback.  Jack   Persyn,  13,  promptly  told  his teacher  when  he  discovered the small pocket knife in a school bag that his aunt had bought at a yard sale.  So once again, zero brain, zero  tolerance rules punish a child who did everything right.  “I can see a one hour detention if they had to do something,” says Bill Persyn, his father.  “But this is nonsense.”  (The Week 1/20/12, page 6)

Dangerous Cake Knife
In Delaware, officials found some common sense after (losing it momentarily to insanity) and now say that they won’t charge an 11-year-old girl with a “deadly weapon” offense, after she brought a cake and a serving knife to her elementary school. The child, Kasia Haughton, said a teacher used the knife to serve the cake but then later reported her under the schools zero  tolerance  policy  for  weapons. The girl’s five day  suspension was also dismissed. (Source: USA Today, 4-6-09, p. 9A)

Just Plain Silly
In Rhode Island, a second-grader violated his school’s no-weapons policy when he glued toy soldiers to his hat as part of a patriotic theme for a class project. School officials  objected to the tiny guns the soldiers carried, and disciplined the boy. “The issue for us,” said a school official, “was the zero-tolerance for weapons.” (The Week, 7-2-10, p. 4)

Suspended for a Finger Gun
In 2007, a zero-tolerance school policies landed a 7-year-old boy in Oklahoma City  in-school suspension for the rest of the day, after he used his fingers to make a gun gesture at school, pointing it at at the wall. Lydia Fox, the mother of the first-grader, says the district over-reacted. Crazier still, he is not the first child to receive a “finger-gun” suspension. (USA Today, 3-8-2011, p. 9A)

Didn’t throw it away fast enough
In Hilton Head Island, South Carolina,  a  10-year-old elementary  school  student was  suspended  after  his  pencil sharpener broke and he did not immediately discard the blade. Authorities say a teacher at Hilton Head Island International Baccalaureate Elementary School found the small blade on the boy in class. The blade was regarded as a “weapon” under the school’s zero-tolerance policies.

Floppy Hair Suspension
In Texas, a 4-year-old boy in the Mesquite Independent School District was placed on suspension for having “floppy hair.” Taylor Pugh’s mother, Elizabeth Taylor, was fighting the suspension. (USA Today, 1-12-2010, p. 9a)

The cost of accepting a breath mint
A 13-year-old boy in Virginia was suspended and forced to take drug awareness classes after he accepted a breathmint from a classmate. (Koch, 2000)

Koch, K. (2000) “Zero tolerance,” CQ researcher, 10, 185