Culture, Race, and Zero Tolerance Policy: The Implications

ABSTRACT

Litanies of issues have emerged because of state-mandated zero tolerance policies across the country. Issues such as suspensions and expulsions over toy guns, verbal assaults, and taking an overthe-counter drug have outraged parents, students, and educators. This paper discusses concerns raised by school administrators and their responsibility to implement zero tolerance policy in their buildings. Specifically, we summarize the array of interpretations of this policy among building principals that subsequently led to differences in the way it was implemented, and in the end, impacted students enrolled in both urban and rural school districts.

KEYWORDS:

• Zero tolerance policy
• race
• community culture
• urban and rural schools