Our schools are prisons by any other name

Study says: Drug testing in schools doesn’t work

A Journal of Study on Alcohol & Drugs study found that neither drug testing nor a “positive school climate” affected alcohol use, because, the study authors claim, it is “normative.” The study defined a positive school climate based on asking students who were followed how they felt about whether: “(a) the rules in the school are clear, (b) teachers can handle problems in the school, and the level of respect between (c) students, (d) teachers for students, and (e) students for teachers is high.”

Ten years ago, in the 2004-2005 academic year, one in seven school districts had some kind of random drug testing program. Sometimes the introduction of drug testing, or even drug dogs, in schools is met with thunderous applause. Sometimes some parents put up opposition. Parents at one high school in New Jersey have recently taken their school district to court looking for documents the district said showed drug testing was needed, but also claimed those documents were confidential and privileged. A state judge decided in the parents’ favor, awarding them $7,500 in legal fees and ruling the school shouldn’t have withheld documents and that using private e-mail didn’t mean they could evade open records laws. You can put up a fight, or let the Marge Simpsons win.
http://reason.com/blog/2014/01/14/study-says-drug-testing-in-schools-doesn#!

Administration calls for schools to limit use of zero tolerance policies:

The damage done by zero tolerance policies has been covered here several times. Recently, we noted more schools were dropping these policies in favor of something more nuanced and leaving fewer routine disciplinary problems in the hands of on-campus police officers. The positive effects of these actions were immediately noticeable. Broward County, Florida schools witnessed a 41% drop in arrests in a 66% drop in suspensions after their zero tolerance policies were abandoned.

Now, the administration itself is addressing the damage done by these policies. The US Department of Education has issued guidelines aimed at rolling back zero tolerance policies, which have made it even harder for at-risk students to have a shot at receiving an education.

The secretary of education, Arne Duncan, and the attorney general, Eric H. Holder Jr., released a 35-page document that outlined approaches — including counseling for students, coaching for teachers and disciplinary officers, and sessions to teach social and emotional skills — that could reduce the time students spend out of school as punishment.

“The widespread use of suspensions and expulsions has tremendous costs,” Mr. Duncan wrote in a letter to school officials. “Students who are suspended or expelled from school may be unsupervised during daytime hours and cannot benefit from great teaching, positive peer interactions and adult mentorship offered in class and in school.”

The documents note that nearly 25% students with disabilities have been suspended, despite making up only 12% of school attendees. In addition, the DOE's research found that black students were being suspended three times as often as white students. The documents also point to the troubling rise of routine infractions being handed over to police officers, which has resulted in a steady stream of kids spending time in court, rather than in school.

A statement by Attorney General Eric Holder addressed this last issue specifically.

“A routine school disciplinary infraction should land a student in the principal’s office, not in a police precinct,” Mr. Holder said in a statement.

(A nice thought from Eric Holder, but perhaps he could consider extending that leniency to non-violent drug offenders, kids saying stupid stuff who get rung up on "terroristic threat" charges and others similarly trapped in an overbearing justice system.)

The DOJ and Dept. of Education have been pushing for changes along these lines since 2009, but this is first time the two have issued such direct guidance urging an overhaul of bad disciplinary policies. Unfortunately, plenty of resistance is expected from schools whose policies are deeply entrenched. (Not that this is completely their fault -- the government tied school funding to zero tolerance weapons policies years ago, which greatly encouraged the spread of "zero tolerance" to other, less potentially dangerous actions.)

“Resistance can make implementing alternatives a difficult course to chart for school leaders,” said Daniel A. Domenech, executive director of the American Association of School Administrators, which represents district superintendents. “Meanwhile, funds to improve school climate and train school personnel in alternative school discipline can be scarce in today’s economic climate.”

Further complicating this return to common sense are other roadblocks erected by the DOE itself.

Professor James Forman Jr. [clinical professor at Yale Law School] added that because school accountability systems focus on student test scores and other academic measures, rather than on reducing suspensions, schools might not have much incentive to keep troubled students in class.

This is a step back on a path towards true accountability in school discipline, something some administrators are in no hurry to implement. The agency's guidance removes the safety net of handing the decision-making over to broad policies and law enforcement officers in order to claim any overreaction is "out of their hands."

There's no easy fix here, even with the agency's suggestions. On paper, students who are truly problematic don't appear much different than students who occasionally do stupid things. Subtleties will continue to be overlooked as policies are adjusted, occasionally taking out the good with the bad. But this is an important step to take. It's been obvious for years that making discipline decisions using the binary of zero tolerance (and turning it over to police officers as swiftly as possible) has done little to make schools better or safer. Instead, it has resulted in hundreds of cases of inappropriate punishments and kids with court records rather than diplomas.
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20140109/05471825818/administration-calls-schools-to-limit-use-zero-tolerance-policies-police-officers-routine-student-discipline.shtml

Lawmaker introduces ‘Common Sense’ bill to stop punishment of children with toy guns:

An Oklahoma legislator introduced a bill last week aimed at easing punishments for schoolchildren who chew Pop Tarts into the shape of a gun, use their fingers as guns during imaginary play or otherwise violate many of the school’s strict “no tolerance” policy when it comes to weapons.

The Common Sense Zero Tolerance Act proposed by Rep. Sally Kern will no longer allow school officials to punish, humiliate, intimidate, be condescending to, or bully a student for having possession of a toy gun that is less than five inches, building a gun from toy blocks, using a figure, hand, writing instrument or other object to simulate a gun or making noises which imitate that of a gun.

In addition, the proposed bill also forbids teachers and other staff from disciplining students who chew food into the shape of a gun, wear articles of clothing that support or advance Second Amendment rights or organizations or draw or otherwise possess or produce “a firearm, military vehicle, aircraft or weapon or any object that supports Second Amendment rights or Constitutional freedoms.”

“Real intent, real threats and real weapons should always be dealt with immediately. We need to stop criminalizing children’s imagination and childhood play,” Kern stated in an interview with News 9.

Kern prepared the bill after hearing of various incidents around the country in which children were being what she perceives as unfairly punished for harmless acts.
http://www.guns.com/2014/01/11/ok-lawmaker-introduces-common-sense-bill-stop-punishment-children-toy-guns-video/