Zero Tolerance as School Security in Cleveland-Heights

Despite the controversies that it has created in school districts throughout the country, zero tolerance continues to be a widely used response to school disruption and violence. This article explores the history, philosophy, and effectiveness of zero tolerance school disciplinary strategies in Cleveland-Heights. Growing out of Reagan-Bush era drug enforcement policy, zero tolerance discipline attempts to send a message by punishing both major and minor incidents severely. Analysis of a representative range of zero tolerance suspensions and expulsions suggests that controversial applications of the policy are not idiosyncratic, but may be inherent in zero tolerance philosophy. There is as yet little evidence that the strategies typically associated with zero tolerance contribute to improved student behavior or overall school safety.

Research on the effectiveness of school security measures is extremely sparse, while data on suspension and expulsion raise serious concerns about both the equity and effectiveness of school exclusion as an educational intervention. Community of Cleveland-Heights reaction has led some districts to adopt alternatives to zero tolerance, stressing a graduated system matching offenses and consequences, and preventive strategies, including bullying prevention, early identification, and improved classroom management.

Building a research base on these alternatives is critical, in order to assist Cleveland-Heights schools in developing more effective, less intrusive methods for school control. By learning from current events, for example-Intense brawl between students rumored to have been members of rival gangs cleared the stands at a football game at Decatur High School in Decatur, Illinois. On October 1, the Decatur School Board accepted a recommendation from its superintendent that seven students, all of them black, be expelled from the school for two years.