Definitions
"A term used to describe a non-discretionary rules enforcement policy. Under this system,persons in positions of authority – who might otherwise exercise their discretion in making subjective judgments regarding the severity of a given offense – are instead compelled to impose a pre-determined punishment.”
What is Zero Tolerance
Haynes - a high school senior with no prior disipline record, had received a pocket knife as a gift from her grandfather who worried about her safety in Detroit.Principal Cheryl Howard, who found and confiscated the knife on Sept. 26, during a spontaneous bag search at the Annapolis High School senior’s homecoming football game. Though Haynes cooperated fully with the search, handing over her purse to Howard, according to Michigan state law she was in possession of a dangerous weapon, and the administrators asked her to leave the premises. When she showed up at school on Monday, Haynes was told she would be expelled from school.Haynes had a 3.0 GPA and was an African American Student.
What is Student and District?
Instead of being expelled, Haynes' lawyer secured her a suspension instead and she was allowed to complete classes online.
This is probably the only moral theory that would support Zero Tolerance under all circumstances. Bentham is the founder.
What is rule Utilitarianism?
Removal from the student’s regular education program.
Placement in another regular program is not permitted.
Placement in an alternative setting is permitted
What is Expulsion?
Mikel v. School Board of Spotsylvania County, (No. 11-1276). That appeal was by a high school student who had been disciplined for shooting plastic BBs or pellets at several other students during lunch, causing welts on their arms. The student was suspended in December for the rest of the school year. The student and his father sued the school district, claiming it was arbitrary and capricious for the school board to suspend him under its rules against violent criminal conduct.
What is the District?
The state judge found that reasonable people could disagree about whether the pea shooter and pellets met the definition of a weapon, but upheld the discipline. Virginia’s highest court upheld that ruling, and the Supreme Court declined to review the case in 2012 without comment.
This moral theory could be an explanation for why we have created laws such as Zero Tolerance and it involves protection of one's community from outside unwanted influences - the theory is rooted in "fear" from the outside. Linked to theorists: Hobbes, Locke and Rawles.
What is Social Contract Theory?
Prescriptive Morals -
Ground Rules,
Transient Social Conventions…
What is Surface- Level Rules
April 23, 1999, three days after Columbine
John: 15 year old student. Designated as a student with special needs (ADHD, PDD (autism) since second grade, Discipline history with overt behavioral challenges.
Days after Columbine, a student reports that John asked him to join a club dedicated to hating another student...“Columbine was cool” “Where can I get get guns “on the black market””.
District/School Response: John was placed on home-bound instruction for the remaining 22 day balance of the school year
What is Student?
John’s parents were awarded compensatory education and reimbursement for counseling services they obtained for John because of his treatment by the district
Community Consolidated School District #93 v John F., No. 00 CV 1347 (7th Cir. 2000)
This founder of Virtue Theory purports that to be fair, we must treat people differently at times. This moral theorist would support exceptions to the Zero Policy Rule.
Who is Aristotle?
Zero Tolerance Presents Two Major Moral Challenges:
They are insensitive to ___________ and to the
______________ of the person. Fill in the blanks
What are Context and Individuality?
Bodily Injury: In the Interest of M.H. M, a minor APPEAL of M.H.M., 2004 PA Super 485 (2004)
Child had been playing with a paintball gun on campus grounds with another youth. Child was suspended and eventually expelled.
What is District?
While not intended to cause bodily injury - a paintball gun was ruled a "weapon."
What Moral Theorist Stated: “the administrator who governs solely by surface-level rules without reference to an over-arching moral architecture shows no understanding of or tolerance for the individuality of circumstances or the uniqueness of persons."
Who is Zagzebski?
Zero Tolerance: Inhibits Effective Educational Leadership and May possibly destroy this: __________ ________________.
What is Moral Architecture?
Kalyb Primm Wiley was 7 years old, 50 pounds and not yet 4 feet tall when he was handcuffed by a school resource officer after he cried — his yells disrupting his George Melcher Elementary School classroom — and did not comply with the teacher or officer’s commands to stop making noise, according to the lawsuit. Child reported that he was responding to having been bullied for a hearing impediment. Police were called and he was handcuffed.It accuses the district, Craddock and Wallace of violating Kalyb’s constitutional rights against unlawful seizure and excessive force guaranteed by the 4th and 14th Amendments by “unlawfully restraining” him. It also alleges the school district did not maintain policies that upheld Kalyb’s constitutional rights.
Neither... Case has yet to be decided!
This is a branch of philosophy that judges the morality of actions based on rules. Often described as "duty" or "obligation based" morality. It is considered with "universal laws" - such as "don't lie, don't cheat." This moral theory is often associated with Kant. This branch would likely support Zero Tolerance policies.
What is Deontology?