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Sunday, March 18, 2001 School safety policies go to far, don't remedy problemsNews-Journal Editorial Children should be safe. In any civilized society, that's a gut-level belief. The feeling only grows stronger in the wake of tragedies -- such as the incident at a San Diego area high school, where a 15-year-old boy killed two classmates and wounded 13 other people, or the case of a 15-year-old Pennsylvania girl who shot a classmate. Society's anguish is understandable. Children should be safe. But that belief can lead to bad law and worse policy. That's become clear to local students and parents. Take the case of the Bunnell Elementary student suspended for drawing a picture -- or the three Atlantic High School students committed to a local mental health facility in 1999 despite any real showing that they were suicidal. These efforts were certainly well-intentioned. But they did more harm than good. The same thing is happening across the country. Zero-tolerance policies mandate suspension or expulsion for a wide range of offenses -- ranging from weapons possession and drug use to verbal altercations and written "threats." Many districts have adopted policies that intrude on students' privacy in the name of protecting them. What did those policies mean to students at Santana High School when Andy Williams opened fire? Not much. California has some of the toughest safe-campus laws in the nation. They didn't stop Williams, and they haven't made a dent in California's school-violence rates. But these laws have made one difference -- in the number of poor and minority students kicked out of school. In the number of children whose education is derailed by spurious suspicions. In the erosion of respect between students and educators. Volusia and Flagler county figures mirror national trends. In Volusia County, minority students make up less than 27 percent of the student population. Yet 33 percent of the students sent to in-school detention centers were minorities, as were 42 percent of the students suspended off-campus. Flagler County figures are about the same. Minority students comprise 22 percent of the student population, but nearly 29 percent of the on-campus suspensions and 39 percent of out-of-school suspensions. Minority students have always represented a higher percentage of disciplinary actions. But the percentages have been climbing. Of equal concern is the number of children who are being detained, questioned and punished over seemingly trivial events. The Flagler County fourth-grader kicked out of school for drawing a picture of himself shooting a classmate is attracting national attention -- but it's not an isolated event. Volusia County's policies are more flexible, but they provide plenty of room for teachers to express concerns based solely on their perception of students' behavior. That policy appears reasonable, but in practice, it can be discriminatory. In the current climate, students who are somehow different -- unpopular, angry or unhappy -- can find themselves targets of harassment for what they think or how they act. Some would argue that these efforts are "early intervention" -- that they help identify students who are ready to commit violence. But psychologists say that current policies are far more likely to isolate troubled students, make them more secretive and feed their alienation. Worse, these overt actions make students feel constantly under suspicion -- that they can't discuss problems with teachers, and that adults are constantly watching them for signs of deviant behavior. Too frequently, that's true -- even without these policies. As schools grow more diverse and students' families become more economically stratified, barriers grow between students and teachers. It takes training to overcome them. But if teachers and other school officials gain student trust, they've found the most effective way to prevent school violence. This state also needs to keep a close eye on what's happening in classrooms, and who is being targeted for discipline. The Flagler County student's plight was made even more alarming by reports that another student -- a high-school athlete -- voiced a threat at least as disturbing and was not expelled. So far, the state Legislature has steered clear of this kind of reactionary lawmaking. Education Commissioner Charlie Crist's Safe Passage plan could, in fact, provide data to refute the effectiveness of those laws. Stripped of its most disturbing provision -- a system of labeling schools "unsafe" and allowing parents to remove children -- the proposed legislation could provide a way to track how student discipline laws and policies are implemented. Parents deserve to know that their children are safe -- but they also deserve to know that their children are being treated fairly and in a way that will give them respect for educators. The Legislature -- along with local school officials -- should also take the opportunity to reflect on the real problems facing Florida students. Poverty. Drug abuse. Neglectful parents. And they should ask themselves if punishment or intrusive questioning is likely to help these children -- or drive them further away. HICI Special Report — Teenagers and Crime: Trends in Adolescent Aggression |
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