In the past couple of decades, public schools in the United States have enforced increasingly punitive methods of discipline. In response to perceived elevation in juvenile crime and school violence, the Clinton Administration signed into law the Gun-Free Schools act of 1994. The act required American schools to enforce mandatory expulsions for any student found in the possession of a firearm on school property. This type of regulation, requiring a mandatory consequence for a predetermined act, is known in the educational realm as a zero tolerance policy. Since 1994, schools throughout America have expanded zero tolerance policies with the stated purpose of maintaining safe learning environments. Research indicates that, since these policies have been introduced, school environments have become more hostile and less conducive to adolescent development and learning. Furthermore, these policies have pushed many students out of schools and into the juvenile justice system for minor behavioral infractions and non-violence offenses. The failure on behalf of these policies to create safer schools calls for reform and the implementation of evidence-based alternatives to school discipline.
In the United States " [a] public school student is suspended every second and a half, and a recent study found that 95 percent of out-of-school suspensions are for nonviolent, minor disruptions such as tardiness or disrespect" (Fine et al., 2003). In schools with Zero-Tolerance policies, these minor disruptions are handled by law enforcement rather than school faculty, blurring the line between the classroom and the courtroom. Since the adoption of these policies in the education community, public school suspensions and expulsions in the United States have skyrocketed. These policies require harsh punishments for a variety of misconduct and deny students due process or evidentiary review in cases of disciplinary infractions.
