Topic page - zero tolerance school policies, children in trouble

Zero tolerance School Policies
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Zero Tolerance School Policies: Full-length Articles
The Steak Knife Fugitive
A girl in elementary school is put through a traumatic arrest in the name of zero tolerance policies at her school, after her mother packed her a knife to eat a steak that had been brought for her lunch during a field trip.

Girl Arrested for Doodling On Her Desk
A girl is handcuffed and dragged out of school in the name of zero tolerance policies for doodling on her desk with an erasable marker.

Child Suspended for Huffing Non-Toxic Marker
The school says a boy violated their zero tolerance policies on drugs when he smelled a non-toxic marker (the kind you can't get high from.).

News Briefs About Zero Tolerance School Policies
In Georgia, a middle school student was suspended for 4 days after telling his teacher that he found a knife in his backback. Jack Persyn, 13, promptly told his teacher when he discovered the small pocket knife in a school bag that his aunt had bought at a yard sale. So once again, zero brain, zero tolerance rules punish a child who did everything right. “I can see a one hour detention if they had to do something,” says Bill Persyn, his father. “But this is nonsense.” (The Week 1/20/12, page 6)

In Delaware, officials found some common sense after losing it momentarily to insanity, and say that they won't charge an 11-year-old girl with a "deadly Weapon II offense, after she brought a cake and a serving knife to her elementary school. The child, Kasia Haughton, said a teacher used the knife to serve the cake but then later reported her under the schools zero tolerance policy for weapons. The girl's five day suspension was also dismissed. (Source: USA Today, 4-6-09, p. 9A)

In Rhode Island, a second-grader violated his school's no-weapons policy when he glued toy soldiers to his hat as part of a patriotic theme for a class project. School officials objected to the tiny guns the soldiers carried, and disciplined the boy. “The issue for us,” said a school official, “was the zero-tolerance for weapons.” (The Week, 7-2-10, p. 4)

Zero-tolerance school policies landed a 7-year-old boy in in-school suspension for the rest of the day, after he used his fingers to make a gun gesture at school. Lydia Fox, the mother of the first-grader, says the district overreacted.

In Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, a 10-year-old elementary school student was suspended after his pencil sharpener broke and he did not immediately discard the blade. Authorities say a teacher at Hilton Head Island International Baccalaureate Elementary School found the small blade on the boy in class. The blade was regarded as a "weapon" under the school's zero-tolerance policies.

In Florida, a 12-year-old boy was arrested for farting in school. Arresting officer Warren Pettway was summoned to the school by a teacher, who said that the boy was disrupting his classroom environment by breaking wind and shutting off several computers. After the boy confessed, Pettway said, "I informed him as a result of his behavior he was being charged with disruption of a school function." The perp was later released to his mother. (The Week, 12-5-08, p.8)

In Texas, a 4-year-old boy in the Mesquite Independent School District was placed on suspension for having "floppy hair." Taylor Pugh's mother, Elizabeth Taylor, was fighting the suspension. (USA Today, 1-12-2010, p. 9a)

In 2007, Chelsea Fraser found herself in police custody after writing “okay” on her desk. Police handcuffed and arrested her at the school. She was one of several students arrested in the class that day. The others were accused of plastering the walls with stickers.

In November 2009, a food fight at a middle school in Chicago, Illinois, prompted a full-scale police response. This resulted in the arrests of 25 children, some as young as 11, according to the Chicago Police Department.

Facts About Zero-Tolerance School Policies
*The Strategy Center, a California-based civil rights group that tracks zero tolerance school policies found that at least 12,000 tickets were issued to tardy or truant students by Los Angeles Police Department and school security officers in 2008. These tickets tarnished students' records and brought them into the juvenile court system, with fines of up to $250 for repeat offenders.

*A class action lawsuit was filed by the New York Civil Liberties union in January of 2010 against the city for using “excessive force” in middle school and high schools. A 12-year-old sixth-grader, identified in the lawsuit as M.M., was arrested in March of 2009 for doodling on her desk at the Hunts Point School.

Other Information & Resources on Zero-Tolerance School Policies

Personal Stories about Zero Tolerance School Policies
These personal stories are offered so that readers can learn about what others have gone through, and what has or hasn’t worked for them in dealing with zero tolerance policy. They have been published as they were provided to us, with only identifying details changed, or small editorial changes made.

Kife gets girl in trouble at school
A model student finds herself in trouble after a boy at school gives her a knife for self protection. Learn what happened next, and how her mom appealed to the school board.