Colorado And Other States Reviewing 'Regimented' School Discipline Policies

DENVER -- Young students in Colorado schools can face ticketing or charges for scrawling doodles on a desk, accidentally hitting a teacher with a beanbag chair, or swiping a stick of gum from a teacher's purse.

That's what a group of high schools students told a state legislative panel Wednesday examining Colorado's strict disciplinary policies, many of which were implemented in the wake of the 1999 Columbine High School shootings and other high-profile cases of youth violence.

"We are here because we believe schools can be safe without criminalizing students for minor misbehaviors," said Brandon Wagoner, 17, who was among the group of students who stood in a semi-circle in front of the panelists as each read them details of the cases.

Republican Rep. B.J. Nikkel, a member of the panel, said zero-tolerance policies have led to the "over-criminalization" of students and that law enforcement sometimes feels shackled because they're left with little discretion on how to deal with problem students.

But Colorado isn't alone in looking at current policies.

Seema Ahmad, a staff attorney at a Washington, D.C.-based civil rights group called Advancement Project, said other states have also begun to re-examine school discipline.

In Florida, legislators approved a law that requires school boards to create guidelines with law enforcement to distinguish between minor and serious offenses to allow for disciplinary discretion, she said. Ahmad said North Carolina also passed a law requiring school districts to examine a student's intent and disciplinary history before deciding on a punishment.

Texas has introduced legislation like Colorado to create a task force to look at school discipline, Ahmad said.

Ahmad said about 3.3 million students were suspended at least once nationally, according U.S. Department of Justice figures from 2006, the latest available data. Blacks and Hispanics are more likely to be suspended or expelled than white students, Ahmad said.

Wagoner said the detailed Colorado cases were a synopsis of some school punishment in the state this year that has caught the attention of the group he belongs to, Parents and Youth United, which is pushing for policy changes.

The 11-year-old student in the Colorado beanbag case, who was goofing around swinging the chair, was cited with harassment and a third-degree assault charge, the group of students said. The eight-grade student who scrawled on his desk got a municipal ticket for graffiti and the 10-year-old boy who took gum from his teacher was charged with misdemeanor theft, the students said.

"We do want to make sure that criminals are punished, and indeed they will be. We're simply seeking balance," Nikkel said about its mission to analyze the Colorado's disciplinary policies, part of a national trend to review school punishment.

Colorado lawmakers created the panel this year, including law enforcement and community representatives. Wednesday was the first of several meetings before the group develops ideas for legislation by October. At the panel's next hearing in August, they plan to hear testimony from victims and law enforcement.

Lawmakers said about 100,000 students in Colorado have been referred to police during the last decade after getting in trouble in school, sometimes for fighting or bringing a toy gun to school.

Democratic Sen. Evie Hudak cited the case this year of a 10-year-old Colorado boy who was arrested after finding a BB gun on a street and playing with it at a school playground after classes ended. The boy's mother told the Boulder Daily Camera that her son was playing cops with other boys and not threatening anyone.

Jonathan Senft, a staffer with Colorado's Legislative Council, told the panel that zero-tolerance policies are meant to target serious offense, such as bringing a firearm to school, but sometimes there are unintended consequences. He said in one instance, a Colorado student was suspended for bringing a wooden replica of a rifle to school. Nationally, students have gotten suspended for having nail clippers or scissors, he said.

The Colorado panel plans to also study disciplinary trends among races.

Democratic Sen. Linda Newell, who lives about a mile from Columbine High School, where two students killed 13 people and then themselves, said she's aware of parents' concerns about their children's safety. But she said she also wants the panel to look at ways to change what she calls a "regimented" system.

Stan Garnett, the top prosecutor in Boulder County, said he worries about what children take away from their early experiences with law enforcement.

"One of the concerns I've had is that I think zero-tolerance often teaches kids that authority makes no sense," he said.

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Comments

[rjsparling]

08:58 PM on 09/20/2011

Zero tolerance policies are, by definition, intolerant. Zero tolerance policies cannot teach reason and measured responses, having abandoned them. Schools need to have room for kids to be kids.

On the other hand, who supports stealing anything from a teacher's purse? Apparently someone does, because they used that example to demonstrate lack of tolerance, "Oh, you just stole some gum? Well, whats wrong with that?"

I think it is hard to be a school administrator who is charged with maintaining an ordered environment that promotes learning for all students, even students who have not learned discipline at home, will not respect administrative authority at school, and are supported by their parents in demonstrating asocial behavior.

Would the parents have paid for the cleaning or replacement of a desk at school without a criminal action? You know some would not.

Swiping anything from anyone's purse is wrong. If the parents had taught that at home would the kid have done it at school? Why would a parent tolerate that once they found out about it?

While problems exist, I think it is time for parents to remember that their children, while special to them, are just another kid in a school that has to work for all kids. Parents who think it is cute for kids to act out at 4 will end up with a problem at 14, so the best thing they can do for their kids is to teach them to thrive in a social world early.

[balderdash33]

07:22 PM on 09/20/2011

It's about time we put some sanity back into these zero tolerance policies, whether in school or in federal law. They're teaching kids all this self esteem stuff, then throwing handcuffs on them for harmless pranks or even just being kids. I see it as part of the overall quest for bureaucratic control in American society. By all means, address dangerous behaviour assertively, but this has all got way out of hand. If I had school age kids now, I'd either homeschool them, or send them to a school that hadn't become obsessed with political correctness.

[Shiva Amina]

11:27 AM on 08/01/2011

It wouldn't be such a difficult discussion to have if students and their parents weren't so quick to sue school districts for every little thing that happens in the classroom. If parents have the right to have "zero tolerance" about their children and what goes on at school, then perhaps the schools should have the same rights when it comes to how they deal with their students.

[El Chingaso]

04:10 PM on 07/29/2011

Public education bureaucrats and law enforcement officials...just get sillier and sillier by the minute (probably because most of them were educated at taxpayers' expense).

[Miss Peaches]

05:10 PM on 07/28/2011

The private prison industry is salivating over the zero tolerance that has been taken to the extreme. The more beds that get filled the more money they make. Why can't people see the correlation here. How is it fair to brand a child who really isn't mature enough to understand all of the possible outcomes for their actions. Why brand them at such an early age as well. For the hardcore cases this is great but doodles, come on you have to stay after school and help the janitor clean all the daily doodles now.

[FeedTheUS]

03:15 PM on 07/28/2011

I was part of many people trained apx. 10 years ago, in using Restorative Justice in the school setting, and saw great results when parents, teachers and volunteer trained mediators, supported each other and the students, by holding "circles", on the spot, or within 24 hours, of what ever the indiscretion/offense was. It was amazing to watch the respect that grew for all participants of the school community, how holding people accountable within the community setting changed behaviors of students, teachers, and children at school and at home, and taught tolerance. We learned that expelling a student is like rewarding them for bad behavior, and in many cases lead to escalation of bad acts because parents weren't available to monitor them so they were out shoplifting from the corner store. Here's more info on RJ in the schools in Colorado: http://bit.ly/oUBh1q

[Heather Plaggemars]

04:17 PM on 07/28/2011

Sounds like someone was using common sense instead of over reaction. Most kids are good at heart but do some stupid things, (haven't we all). This sounds like a sensible calm way to deal with minor misdemeanors before things get out of control. It also gives students, parents and teachers time to reflect on the best course of action.

[Don Roberson]

02:54 PM on 07/28/2011

.Glad I home school,don't have to put up with so much Bull

[pakaal]

11:24 PM on 07/30/2011

I recommend you outsource for writing / composition, the period is at the wrong end of your sentence.

[Kevin Zielke]

11:12 AM on 07/28/2011

Yes i can see the zero tolerance point of view quite clearly; doodle on your desk one day, the next day you cause a massacre. Quite simple really.

[Ghoulish]

12:37 PM on 07/28/2011

I have seen doodling on desks lead to carving on desks which leads to school districts having to put money out to replace said desk, and thus leaving a teacher with fewer supplies and resources in areas that actually help students learn.

I'm not saying students need to be made to feel like criminals for doodling on a desk, but I'd rather see my tax dollars go supplies, textbooks, and technology rather than replacing desks which would have otherwise lasted years, all because we think doodling is harmless and cute.

Sounds like an overreaction, I know, but the school district where I worked spent thousands of dollars every year replacing desks that had profanity carved into them, or written with ink that could not be washed off.

[Gary Simon 1]

10:31 AM on 07/28/2011

The beanbag case seems overblown, but the others I don't have a problem with. I'm sure the students involved will think about the consequences of their actions from now on.