Admittedly, schools need to come up with measures pertinent for maintaining high disciple standards and safe learning environment. In fact, teachers cannot have effective lessons with students in a risky environment that often triggers fear. Worse still, students require a harmonious school environment that is free from any chaotic scenarios. Notably, most schools have zero tolerance policies to help modifying the environment in order to facilitate effective teaching and excellent student academic performance. Typically, zero tolerance is a term that engulfs a philosophy, which permits the use of predetermined outcomes, in most cases punitive and severe in order to bring sanity in schools (Daniels, 2009). However, the use of zero tolerance policies in schools lacks a reasonable balance, creates risks in learning and do not always work for the better.
According to Bates & Swan (2014), the introduction of zero tolerance measures in learning institutions causes problems with educational systems. While zero tolerance measures may be well, they are detrimental because they lead to overdependence of security technology. Essentially, security technology is expensive, and most schools invest a lot to acquire such infrastructure. Even as technology may be vital in the security, there is little evidence that the schools environment has had significant safety.
Similarly, the use of zero-tolerance measures in schools is disadvantageous because it leads to student profiling habits. In essence, student profiling is a discriminatory approach that allows for identification of specific students who have a likelihood to cause violence and to expel them to keep the school environment safe. Often, student profiling is short of credibility because it uses profiles of past students to evaluate current students without justifiable shield against victimization. The expulsion of some students from school for fear of causing violence leads to disparities in educational opportunities. In some schools, cases of violence increased because of zero-tolerance policies, which intimidate students and make them retaliate through various acts of indiscipline such as strikes that compromise safety even more.
In conclusion, zero-tolerance policies partly help to create a safe learning environment in schools. The measures, however, are ineffective in some cases because they result in student profiling and disparities in educational opportunities. Therefore, the use of zero tolerance policies in schools lacks a reasonable balance, creates risks in learning and do not always work for the better.
References
Bates, K., & Swan, R. (2014). Juvenile Delinquency in a Diverse Society.
Daniels, P. (2009). Zero tolerance policies in schools. Detroit: Greenhaven Press.
