Zero Tolerance in Schools

[ASTalumna06]

These kinds of stories present two problems:

1) An overreaction to a minor "infraction"
2) The punishment used in response to the infraction

In the example aephi alum presents above, the irrational, overblown assumption/concern is that this child wants to kill his classmate. Schools claim they need to come down hard on these students and show them that there's "no tolerance" for such behavior. However, if you were really concerned that this child wanted to harm another student (or students), do you really think that suspending him for three days is the solution?

Regarding the story that I initially posted - if there was actually a concern that this student was throwing up a gang sign, where is the concern for the student's well-being? Who is there to help him? Where are the adults asking, "What went wrong?" or "Is he ok?" or "Maybe we should sit down and talk with him and figure out how things are at school/home." If he was really part of a gang, do you think suspending him indefinitely, to possibly socialize with this gang more, is going to solve the problem?

While schools overreacting is a concern, I don't think this bothers me as much as the way they're punishing these students. If a student wanted to harm someone else, or if a student was in a gang, shouldn't someone want to help them?