Study Finds Zero Tolerance Policies Put Thousands of Children On Schoolhouse to Jailhouse Track

WASHINGTON, May 14 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Advancement

Project released, Derailed: The Schoolhouse to Jailhouse Track, a first-of-its-kind report that looks at how zero-tolerance policies are derailing students from an academic track in schools to a future in the juvenile justice system.

According to the report, in the mid 1980s, a spike in juvenile crime rates gave birth to the "super predator" theory which held that America was under assault by a generation of brutally amoral young people, and that only the abandonment of "soft" educational and rehabilitative approaches, in favor of strict and unrelenting discipline -- a zero tolerance approach -- could end the plague.

"In school district after school district, an inflexible and unthinking zero tolerance approach to an exaggerated juvenile crime problem is derailing the educational process," said Judith Browne, Advancement Project senior attorney. "The educational system is starting to look more like the criminal justice system. Acts once handled by a principal or a parent are now being handled by prosecutors and the police."

The report, which looked at data from school systems across the country, finds that creation of the schoolhouse to jailhouse track has damaged a generation of children -- particularly children of color -- by:

* Criminalizing trivial offenses and pushing children out of the school system and into the juvenile justice system, making them less likely to graduate and more likely to end up back in the juvenile or criminal system; and, * Turning schools into prison-like "secure environments, "replete with drug-sniffing dogs, metal detectors, and uniformed law enforcement personnel, which lowers morale and makes learning more difficult.

The report documented dramatic spikes in student arrests in some places; for example there was a 300 percent jump between 1999 and2001 in the Miami- Dade Schools. In other districts, the numbers of arrests were staggering. In 2001, arrests in the Houston Independent School District and Baltimore City Public Schools totaled 1,959 and845, respectively. In Palm Beach County, Florida, 1,287 arrests were made by school police in 2001 alone. Across the board, a common thread exists, that a majority of these arrests are for minor conduct such as disorderly conduct, "miscellaneous," and simple assaults, previously handled by schools and parents. Children of color are often disproportionately impacted as is the case in places like South Carolina, Miami-Dade, Pinellas County (FL), and Palm Beach County.

In Palm Beach County, Florida, the report looked beyond the numbers, focusing on the school administrator, and police attitudes behind them, finding stark contrast between official perspective on these policies and actual experience of parents, public defenders and students.

The following examples illustrate the extreme reaction to minor offenses that are causing a growing number of students to be derailed into the juvenile justice system.

* In Palm Beach County, Florida, a student was arrested and charged with "throwing a deadly missile" for having an egg in his pocket on Halloween.

* In Indianola, Mississippi, elementary school student shave been arrested and taken to the local jail for talking during assembly.

* In San Francisco, two 12-year-old best friends had an argument; one later threatened to beat up the other. She was arrested and charged with making "criminal threats." This 6th grader was detained at juvenile hall and referred to juvenile court on the charge.

*In New Jersey, two elementary school boys were arrested and charged with terrorism for playing cops and robbers with paper guns. "Students, who engage in truly criminal behavior such as murder, serious violence, or the sale or possession of illicit drugs, should be subjected to criminal charges -- as they were even before zero tolerance became the watchword," continued Browne. "However, students should not be deprived of an education and a future by being derailed into the juvenile justice system for minor acts."

Statistics show that youth violence has declined and that schools remain the safest places for children. From 1997 to 2000, nonfatal crimes against students dropped by 44 percent; for the same period serious violent crimes (rape, sexual assault, robbery or aggravated assault) declined 43 percent. "Laws must be changed through statutory fixes and, if necessary, litigation to reduce the number of petty cases that schools refer to the juvenile justice system to ensure that students' rights are protected, "concluded Browne. "As policymakers attempt to 'Leave No Child Behind,' reducing the criminalization of students by their schools should be a top priority. This runaway train must be stopped."

Advancement Project is a policy and legal action organization that creates strategies for achieving universal opportunity and a racially just democracy. With offices in Washington D.C. and Los Angeles, California, we support organized communities in their struggles for racial and social justice by providing legal, policy, and communications expertise. For more information or to obtain a copy of the study, please

visit our website at http://www.advancementproject.org/.