Zero tolerance policies in schools are in the news again with a February 18 CNN report about a 12-year-old girl removed in shackles from a New York City public school for drawing on her desk.
The report includes other examples that demonstrate that, in the words of one person quoted in the article, “There is zero intelligence when you start applying zero tolerance across the board…”
Girl’s arrest for doodling raises concerns about
zero tolerance
(CNN) — There was no profanity, no hate. Just the words, “I love my friends Abby and Faith. Lex was here 2/1/10 :)” scrawled on the classroom desk with a green marker.
Alexa Gonzalez, an outgoing 12-year-old who likes to dance and draw, expected a lecture or maybe detention for her doodles earlier this month. Instead, the principal of the Junior High School in Forest Hills, New York, called police, and the seventh-grader was taken across the street to the police precinct. . . .
CfJJ: Juvenile Justice News 