Zero Tolerance: Resisting the Drive for Punishment in Our Schools :A Handbook for Parents, Students, Educators, and Citizens

by William Ayers (Editor), Rick Ayers (Editor), Bernardine Dohrn (Editor)

Overview

"Zero tolerance" began as a prohibition against guns, but it has quickly expanded into a frenzy of punishment and tougher disciplinary measures in American schools. Ironically, as this timely collection makes clear, recent research indicates that as schools adopt more zero tolerance policies they in fact become less safe, in part because the first casualties of these measures are the central, critical relationships between teacher and student and between school and community.

Zero Tolerance assembles prominent educators and intellectuals, including the Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, Sr., Michelle Fine, and Patricia Williams, along with teachers, students, and community activists, to show that the vast majority of students expelled from schools under new disciplinary measures are sent home for nonviolent violations; that the rush to judge and punish disproportionately affects black and Latino children; and that the new disciplinary ethos is eroding constitutional protections of privacy, free speech, and due process. Sure to become the focus of controversy, Zero Tolerance presents a passionate, multifaceted argument against the militarization of our schools.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781565846661
Publisher:	New Press, The
Publication date:	11/01/2001
Pages:	263
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.25(h) x (d)

About the Author

William Ayers is Distinguished Professor of Education and Senior UniversityScholar at the University of Illinois at Chicago (retired). He co-edited City Kids, City Teachers; Teaching for Social Justice; Zero Tolerance; and City Kids, City Schools (all available from The New Press).

Bernardine Dohrn is director of the Children and Family Justice Center at Northwestern UniversitySchool of Law, Legal Clinic.

Rick Ayers teaches at Berkeley High School and is the author of Studs Terkel's Working: A Teaching Guide.

Table of Contents

	Foreword	vii
	Introduction: Resisting Zero Tolerance	xi
Part 1	Narratives	1
	Ground Zero	3
	Two Punches, Expelled for Life	15
	Arturo's Case	31
	From the Jail Yard to the School Yard	42
	Racial Profiling at School: The Politics of Race and Discipline at Berkeley High	51
	Decatur: A Story of Intolerance	64
	America Still Eats Her Young	77
Part 2	Social Contexts	87
	"Look Out Kid/It's Something You Did": Zero Tolerance for Children	89
	How Distorted Coverage of Juvenile Crime Affects Public Policy	114
	Zero Tolerance as Mandatory Sentencing	126
	Education, Delinquency, and Incarceration	136
	Sexual Harassment Meets Zero Tolerance: Life in K-12 Schools	143
	Sticks and Stones: The Jailing of Mentally Ill Kids	155
Part 3	Education and Activism	163
	Zero Tolerance: A Basic Racial Report Card	165
	When Is Disproportionality Discrimination? The Overrepresentation of Black Students in School Suspension	176
	The ABCs of School Discipline: Lessons from Miami-Dade County	188
	Finding Safety Where We Least Expect It: The Role of Social Capital in Preventing School Violence	202
	Turning to Each Other, Not on Each Other: How School Communities Prevent Racial Bias in School Discipline	219
	The Role of Law in Policing Abusive Disciplinary Practices: Why School Discipline Is a Civil Rights Issue	230
	Zero Tolerance: Reflections on a Failed Policy That Won't Die	256
	Permissions	265

Editorial Reviews

In the wake of recent school shootings, zero-tolerance policies have sprung up across the nation in an effort to curb the violence supposedly running rampant in American educational institutions. But are such policies working, or are they causing more harm than good? And is school violence really on the increase, or is this merely the public's perception, fueled by increased media coverage? This collection of 20 essays-compiled by a professor of education, a high school teacher, and a clinical professor-examines the use of zero-tolerance policies across America, explaining the reasoning behind their creation, analyzing their effectiveness, and suggesting alternatives. While contributors, who include Rev. Jesse L. Jackson and Michelle Fine, share similar views (e.g., kicking youths out of school increases their likelihood of criminal behavior, racial profiling appears connected to zero-tolerance policies, and public perception of school violence does not correspond with statistics), each puts his or her own twist on the subject. The result is a quality collection that should find its way into every public and academic library.-Terry Christner, Hutchinson P.L., KS

Library Journal

An analysis of the "zero tolerance" policies often implemented in today's schools, and the ways these policies have disproportionately affected black and Latino students. "Zero tolerance" initially meant that any student bringing a gun to school would be expelled for up to two years. In many schools, however, the policy has come to cover not only realistic replicas of firearms and knives, but objects that, by virtue of their shape or design, could cause any physical harm, or even give the appearance of being able to do so. It is this nebulous wording that has the editors worried. William Ayers (A Kind and Just Parent, 1997), Dohrn (director, Children and Family Justice Center/Northwestern Univ.), and Berkeley High School teacher Rick Ayers argue that the rates of school punishment for black students exceed rates for white students. Clear examples in support of their theory are periodically given: A white student in Vermont was neither suspended nor expelled for bringing a loaded shotgun to school, while an African-American student in Rhode Island was suspended for offering to dislodge a computer disk with a penknife. At other times, the authors' rhetoric misses the mark: When six African-American students expelled for fighting try to return to their campus illegally, the situation is likened to "the 1957 placement of National Guard troops at Central High School in Little Rock." One wishes the editors had declared zero tolerance for purple prose: "Tears moistened the principal's eyes as she watched the axe fall on twelve-year-old Arturo, a student she had known since she first became the principal of the elementary school on Chicago's South Side." Even so, these are mostly sound essaysilluminating how the media's coverage of juvenile crime has led to blanket policies that can make little sense.

Kirkus Reviews