Zero benefit: Punishment study should bring a new look at school discipline

Many parents probably were alarmed at the results of a study released Tuesday that reports nearly 60 percent of all Texas public school students have received punishment ranging from in-school suspension to outright expulsion.

The report, from the Council of State Governments Justice Center, also found, not surprisingly, that those students who are disciplined are more likely to do poorly in class and wind up in the juvenile or criminal justice systems.

Based on such information, one can’t blame parents for wondering if their own children are safe in public school.

Many interested observers insist that there’s more to such reports than is apparent. They point, with good reason, to increasingly intolerant policies that put many exemplary students on the delinquency rolls for infractions that include taking plastic knives, retractable combs and menstruation medication to school.

Some even say that schools are using zero tolerance policies to push out students who might have trouble on standardized tests and lower the schools’ performance numbers.

Certainly, delinquent students, those most likely to be disciplined in school, are just as likely to violate criminal statutes as school rules. That hardly means, however, that 60 percent of Texas schoolchildren are delinquents who’ll end up behind bars.

The center chose Texas as its testing ground because the state has a full 10 percent of all U.S. students. It also has one of the most diverse populations of any state, with nearly half of the students being Hispanic, a third white and nearly a fifth black, Asian and other demographic groups.

Texas schools also have some of the strictest conduct policies. Debbie Ratcliffe, spokeswoman for the Texas Education Agency, noted that 90 percent of students who were disciplined had violated a school’s code conduct that could be as minor as dying one’s hair an odd color or saying a cuss word. Most served in-school suspension.

But even those who were expelled or sent to an alternative "boot camp" include honors students who made mistakes that most people would consider minor. Stories abound of students kicked out of school for having nail files or plastic knives that run afoul of zero-tolerance weapons policies.

Other students have faced the same fate for having cough drops, medication for menstrual cramps and even mouthwash. Even Halloween costumes that had cardboard or plastic swords and toy guns have led to children’s suspension and even expulsion.

Zero-tolerance policies have "gone to an extreme that doesn’t make anyone safer," says reporter Annette Fuentes, who has released a book about the issue titled "Lockdown High." "The research shows that schools with the most security measures and harsh disciplinary policies actually have more disorder and violent incidents.

"If you treat people like criminals, they will live down to your expectations."

This information should concern parents. Given the high competition at America’s top universities, a disciplinary record could mean the difference between getting an acceptance letter or scholarship, or winding up at the local community college.

Fuentes also found that many schools use zero tolerance to push out students who would score poorly on standardized tests.

"Educators I interviewed around the country said that the pressure of high-stakes testing, which is part of (the No Child Left Behind’s) mandates to raise student scores in math and English, creates pressures to suspend kids who are low achievers," she said.

Studies also show that true crimes on campus, such as fighting or bringing a gun to school, are no more or less than they were before Congress mandated harsher school safety measures in 1994. About 3 percent of students are true delinquents, a number that hasn’t changed much in decades.

So the news that more than half of our students getting into trouble shouldn’t frighten parents. Rather, they should be concerned that their own children will find their way onto the rolls of delinquents even if they do nothing wrong.