Claims Made in Criticism
Critics of zero tolerance policies frequently refer to cases where minor offenses have resulted in severe punishments and instead make schools more like a jail or a prison. Typical examples include the honor-roll student being expelled from school under a "no weapons" policy while in possession of nail clippers.
Furthermore zero-tolerance policies have been struck down by US courts and by Departments of Education.
A particularly dismaying hypothesis about zero tolerance policies is that they may actually discourage some people from reporting criminal and illegal behavior, for fear of losing relationships, and for many other reasons. That is, ironically, zero tolerance policies may be ineffective in the very purpose for which they were originally designed.
Read more about this topic: Zero Tolerance (schools)
Famous quotes containing the words claims and/or criticism:
“All claims of education notwithstanding, the pupil will accept only that which his mind craves.”
—Emma Goldman (1869–1940)
“The critic lives at second hand. He writes about. The poem, the novel, or the play must be given to him; criticism exists by the grace of other men’s genius. By virtue of style, criticism can itself become literature. But usually this occurs only when the writer is acting as critic of his own work or as outrider to his own poetics, when the criticism of Coleridge is work in progress or that of T.S. Eliot propaganda.”
—George Steiner (b. 1929)