SoylentNews

Runaway1956 [soylentnews.org] writes:

A number of "news" sites, from Salon to Fox, and many more, are pointing out that school administrators are pushing back against "zero tolerance".

http://www.salon.com/2015/09/25/zero_tolerance_madness_a_no_touching_rule_means_even_tag_is_out_of_bounds_for_seattle_area_school_kids/ [salon.com]
Zero-tolerance madness: A “no touching” rule means even tag is out-of-bounds for Seattle-area school kids

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2015/09/25/old-school-districts-rediscover-teacher-discretion-drop-zero-tolerance-policies/ [foxnews.com]
Old school: Districts rediscover teacher discretion, drop ‘zero tolerance’ policies

https://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/editorials/2015/09/21/ahmed-mohamed-and-absurdities-zero-tolerance/f5fKSCpxSYWTwKAkKUMOtL/story.html [bostonglobe.com]
Ahmed Mohamed and the absurdities of zero-tolerance

http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2015/09/will-school-discipline-reform-actually-change-anything/405157/ [theatlantic.com]
Will School-Discipline Reform Actually Change Anything?

From that last link:

Districts from Los Angeles to New York City are experimenting with new policies designed to eliminate zero-tolerance discipline. But the reality is often a lot different than the idea.
High-school students attend a circle session at restorative justice class at the Augustus F. Hawkins High School in Los Angeles, which recently reformed its discipline policies. Damian Dovarganes / AP

Christine Rodriguez vividly recalls her early school years. A native of Brooklyn’s Bushwick neighborhood, a working-class predominantly black and Latino section of New York City, her most vivid memories of elementary school consist of crammed classrooms with inadequate books, insufficient chairs, and the constant presence of the school-safety agent. (School Safety Agents, or SSAs, are New York Police Department officers assigned to K-12 campuses and charged with protecting students, campus staff, and visitors.) Now a college freshman at The New School studying education, Rodriguez rattles off with ease how school discipline shaped her K-12 education.

“We go to schools where there are more SSAs than guidance counselors. For us, it makes us feel that they expect us to end up in jail rather than in college,” said Rodriguez, 17. “I’ve been to public school my whole life. I’ve experienced the school-to-prison pipeline”—a term commonly used to describe the trend in which largely disadvantaged students are funneled into the criminal-justice system—“and criminalization (of students). And I’ve questioned why all of these things happen to our communities.”

The school-to-prison pipeline. The lady nailed it with that one descriptor of the system. School-to-prison pipeline. Zero tolerance does little more than to identify "criminals" early, so that they can be put into "the system" as early as possible. Institutionalize them early, for maximum profit.

Topic: Anthropology?

Original Submission