Let’s talk about zero tolerance again…



Today’s news list:

 

1.      “Disproportionate Suspensions for African American Males

African American males were suspended at a rate more than six times the rate for white males across the district. In Elementary schools this ratio was closer to nine times higher while in high schools the rate was slightly over double the rate for white males, mostly for defiance reasons”.

 

(http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/04/education/restorative-justice-programs-take-root-in-schools.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0)

 

2. “BUFFALO, N.Y. — A new discipline policy adopted by the Buffalo school district for next year is being praised by advocates who say it's about time that schools replace out-of-school suspensions for minor offenses with more productive solutions”.

 

(http://online.wsj.com/article/AP300bfee11e3544a78829e1cf29c70b76.html)

 

 

3. “A fifth-grader in Cupertino, California was suspended and threatened with expulsion for bringing a small Swiss Army knife on a school-sponsored, science-oriented camping trip”.

 

4. “Officials at an elementary school in small-town Michigan impounded a third-grader boy’s batch of 30 homemade birthday cupcakes because they were adorned with green plastic figurines representing World War Two soldiers. The school principal branded the military-themed cupcakes “insensitive” in light of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting”.

5. “At Genoa-Kingston Middle School in northeast Illinois, a teacher threatened an eighth-grader with suspension if he did not remove his t-shirt emblazoned with the interlocking rifles, a symbol of the United States Marines”.

6. “At Park Elementary School in Baltimore, Maryland, a student was suspended for two days because his teacher thought he shaped a strawberry, pre-baked toaster pastry into something resembling a gun”.

7. “At Poston Butte High School in Arizona, a high school freshman was suspended for setting a picture of a gun as the desktop background on his school-issued computer”.

8. “At D. Newlin Fell School in Philadelphia, school officials reportedly yelled at a student and then searched her in front of her class after she was found with a paper gun her grandfather had made for her”.

9. “In rural Pennsylvania, a kindergarten girl was suspended for making a “terroristic threat” after she told another girl that she planned to shoot her with a pink Hello Kitty toy gun that bombards targets with soapy bubbles”.

10. “At Roscoe R. Nix Elementary School in Maryland, a six-year-old boy was suspended for making the universal kid sign for a gun, pointing at another student and saying “pow.” That boy’s suspension was later lifted and his name cleared”.

We need to remember that our children are not the enemy and we do not need to treat them like criminals. Criminals are presumed innocent until found guilty so why not our children?

It is about what is best for the student right?

Dr Flavius A B Akerele III

The ETeam