Long-term effects associated with the use of zero-tolerance policies and lack of restorative discipline strategies used with expelled students in a local Lower Rio Grande Valley school district revealed that students' lives were impacted negatively by educators who practiced a one-size-fits-all approach to school discipline. Marginalization of expelled students impacted transition back to their home campuses. This study informs a gap in the literature and overarching concerns regarding whether zero-tolerance policies have made schools safer (Hyder & Hussain, 2015). Results from the participant data in this inquiry divulged two perspectives. The educator perspective was that zero-tolerance was good for the school, minimally impacted the student body as a whole, taught students limits, and was an effective way to control student behavior. The former students' perceptions were very different as they revealed the escalation, separation and stigmatization as part of their lived experiences (Clandinin, et al., 2006).