Does Zero Tolerance work in public schools

1. Have zero tolerance policies made schools safer and more effective in handling
disciplinary issues?
We examined the data concerning five key assumptions of zero tolerance policies.
In general, data tended to contradict the presumptions made in applying a zero tolerance
approach to maintaining school discipline and order:
• School violence is at a serious level and increasing, thus necessitating
forceful, no-nonsense strategies for violence prevention. Although violence
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and disruption are unacceptable in schools and are hence key concerns that must
be continually addressed in education, the evidence does not support an
assumption that violence in schools is out-of-control. Serious and deadly violence
remain a relatively small proportion of school disruptions, and the data have
consistently indicated that school violence and disruption have remained stable, or
even decreased somewhat, since approximately 1985.
• Through the provision of mandated punishment for certain offenses, zero
tolerance increases the consistency of school discipline and thereby the
clarity of the disciplinary message to students. Consistency, often defined as
treatment integrity or fidelity, is indeed an important criterion in the
implementation of any behavioral intervention. The evidence strongly suggests,
however, that zero tolerance has not increased the consistency of school
discipline. Rather, rates of suspension and expulsion vary widely across schools
and school districts. Moreover, this variation appears to be due as much to
characteristics of schools and school personnel as to the behavior or attitudes of
students.
• Removal of students who violate school rules will create a school climate
more conducive to learning for those students who remain. A key assumption
of zero tolerance policy is that the removal of disruptive students will result in a
safer climate for others. Although the assumption is strongly intuitive, data on a
number of indicators of school climate have shown the opposite effect, that is,
that schools with higher rates of school suspension and expulsion appear to have
less satisfactory ratings of school climate, less satisfactory school governance
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structures, and to spend a disproportionate amount of time on disciplinary matters.
Perhaps more importantly, recent research indicates a negative relationship
between the use of school suspension and expulsion and school-wide academic
achievement, even when controlling for demographics such as socioeconomic
status. Although such findings do not demonstrate causality, it becomes difficult
to argue that zero tolerance creates more positive school climates when its use is
associated with more negative achievement outcomes.
• The swift and certain punishments of zero tolerance have a deterrent effect
upon students, thus improving overall student behavior and discipline. The
notion of deterring future misbehavior is central to the philosophy of zero
tolerance, and the impact of any consequence on future behavior is the defining
characteristic of effective punishment. Rather than reducing the likelihood of
disruption however, school suspension in general appears to predict higher future
rates of misbehavior and suspension among those students who are suspended. In
the long term, school suspension and expulsion are moderately associated with a
higher likelihood of school dropout and failure to graduate on time.

The Greenville County school board in Greenville County SC is pits when it comes to education
I think its past time for the school board to stop their self servering networking and implement some Common sense, they killed common sense, now the schools are facing a life time of failuar.

The Greenville County's favorite son

Bobby Caldwell