Barry Weisberg, J.D.

The struggle in Decatur, Illinois, over the implementation of a "zero tolerance" policy toward school violence reveals how Americans are more interested in punishing children than preventing violence. The harsh, punitive attitude toward children in the United States is a major factor driving the rising tide of violence by children.

The concept of "zero tolerance" originated in the "war on drugs" in the 1980's. It targeted the individual use of illegal drugs while largely ignoring the producers, distributors, or money launderers. The net result has been to fill the jails with addicts and consumers. The policy targeted illegal drugs while ignoring legal drugs such as alcohol and tobacco, which annually kill or injure more people than illegal drugs. By 1990, the U.S. Customs Service discontinued the "zero tolerance" program.

But in the United States, failure is no obstacle to punishment. We have now seen a decade of "zero tolerance" policy in schools, and six years since it was institutionalized in the 1994 Gun-Free Schools Act. In Decatur, Illinois, twelve hundred students have been expelled. Students who bring guns or drugs to school are expelled for one year while seven African-Americans engaged in a brawl in which, fortunately, there were no reported injuries, were expelled for two years. Despite the protestations of the School District, disciplining children and youth is a community concern, since school expulsions often lead to school drop outs, with the resulting costs to the community.

After a decade, there is virtually no data that suspensions prevent school violence. Suspensions are not prevention at all but intervention, after the offense has been committed. The authoritarian means of "zero tolerance" demonizes individuals instead of improving institutions, teaches our youth non-democratic values, and appears to be implemented in a racially disparate manner across the country.

"Zero tolerance" is often equated with the "broken windows" approach to crime in New York. It applies a punitive approach for even minor offenses. But the rush to punish adults should not be applied to children. Furthermore, the concept of "zero tolerance" is hypocritical. Both physical and psychological violence exists throughout every school system. Yet there is no "zero tolerance" for football, basketball, racism or student humiliation. The "zero tolerance" policy is harshly applied to children and youth while we tolerate U.S. military interventions around the world or police brutality at home.

Violence cannot be eradicated, but it can be reduced and prevented. In Huntington Beach, California, the High School pursued prevention. They developed a personalized approach to students with behavior problems. Programs such as adopt-a-kid, weekly staff meetings with troubled students, "most-improved student" awards, a "student of the month" award, discussion groups with all students twice a month, and other methods were adopted. In one year there was a 47% decrease in disruptive behavior and a 51% reduction in "the list" of disruptive students. There are many inventories of proven and promising prevention programs available for those who are interested. The most destructive course of all is to remove youth from school, depriving them of both an education and any type of violence prevention education. What is needed is a family-school-community comprehensive violence prevention and peace promotion strategy. The walls between the family, school and community must be dissolved so that the three institutions can work together to identify risks, formulate integrated prevention programs and evaluate results. Moreover, it is not enough to reduce violence, promote non-violence or provide conflict resolutions classes. The positive values, attitudes and behaviors required for peace and cooperation must be creatively taught K-12, as promoted by the current United Nations International Year of the Culture of Peace.

It turns out that "zero tolerance" is a new form of intolerance against children and youth in general, and African American and Hispanic youth in particular. It is a direct extension of the ill conceived and racially disparate implementation of the "war on drugs" and the "war on crime". The United States is one of only two countries to refuse to ratify the Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989), and is now on the lonely road of convicting younger and younger children for murder. It is the violence against children that is the foundation for the violence by children.