Pubdate: Fri, 18 Nov 2005
Source: Chatham Sun (CN ON)
Copyright: 2005 Sun Media Corporation 2005
Contact:  http://chathamsun.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/4018

ZERO IN AND ZERO OUT

Part of growing up is making mistakes - and learning from them.

Most of us can look back on our own school days and recall an incident 
where we made a bad choice - talking rudely to a teacher, getting in a 
fight with a classmate, or picking on the poor kid who just didn't seem to 
fit in.

Those of us of a certain vintage can also probably remember some of the 
punishments meted out - many involving blackboard pointers or rulers 
landing on a vulnerable body part.

We can also likely recall more than one caring school official who took the 
time to hear our explanations and apologies. Someone who put the incident 
into a larger context, based on his or her experience as an educator and adult.

These days, the same sort of troublemaking occurs in our schools. But it's 
also true that this "troublemaking" has, in some cases, reached far more 
serious proportions.

And that's a large part of the reason the Safe Schools Act was established 
by the province in 2001. It imposes automatic suspensions or expulsions for 
offences such as assault, drug trafficking and possession of weapons or 
alcohol.

This is obviously serious stuff and should not be tolerated in our schools. 
Problem is, that same "zero tolerance" has been extended to other 
infractions, many of which are not quite as serious or have mitigating 
circumstances.

As one educator points out, instead of trying to determine the cause of a 
child's delinquency, school officials are forced to inflict punishment that 
may do little to address the real problem. For example, suspending a truant 
child. That's a neat trick -- skip school and be punished by getting even 
more time off.

This type of policy is only as good as the people who enforce it. "Zero 
tolerance" takes away the discretionary powers of those individuals to deal 
with specific situations. That sometimes means restraining good teachers 
from doing a good job, and enabling poor ones to continue with little redress.

As children face increasingly complex pressures, we need educators who are 
willing and able to go beyond the obvious behaviour and get to the root of 
the problem.

Because we can kick problem kids out of school, that only leaves them out 
on the street.
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MAP posted-by: Jo-D