Describes a Tacoma (Washington) high school's efforts to adopt a zero-tolerance policy toward fighting. An aggressive communication campaign was used to familiarize parents and students with the new policy. Numbers of violent incidents decreased during the past three years. Two parents who formally challenged the school's expulsion policy lost in…

Most courts have flexibly interpreted the constitutional requirement of procedural and substantive due process in favor of zero-tolerance expulsion decisions. While being sensitive to community intolerance for threats to school safety (student possession of guns or drugs), school leaders should modulate development and enforcement of expulsion…

In this paper, the contradiction of practising zero tolerance in inclusive schools is discussed using the critical method of Skrtic's immanent critique. The authors contend that the policy of inclusive schools for all is contradicted and undermined by the practice of zero tolerance policies, especially suspensions, expulsions and segregation.…

The exclusion of pupils from mainstream and special schools remains a serious issue in the UK despite various initiatives to reduce both the number and the impact of such exclusions. Among those who are consistently over-represented in the exclusion statistics for England are pupils with special educational needs (SEN)--particularly, but not…

Previous research has neither fully examined family structure across the life course nor considered increasing variation in family types. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (N = 11,318), I examine the influence of longitudinal measures across childhood of family structure duration and the number and timing of…

This article presents an overview of a strengths-based school discipline initiative that was developed in response to the high suspension and expulsion rates of African American and Latino male students at a racially diverse, urban high school in California. A school task force made up of adult and youth stakeholders devised a series of…

A common disruption to learning and stability in schools occurs when pupils fight or become aggressive. This paper considers the issues of anger management, violence control and fighting reduction through a counselling programme with a high-risk pupil in secondary school. It begins by examining some of the thinking on young people and violence and…

Suspension and expulsion are widely used to exclude students with and without disabilities who present problem behaviors in school, despite contentious legal debate and evidence associating these methods with high ecological stress and problematic developmental outcomes. Using selected participant data (N = 1,824) from the SEELS study, the study…

Common reasons that young people choose to carry firearms outside of school--protection, intimidation of others, or to be like their peers--are the same reasons they carry guns into the school. This fact sheet presents statistics regarding the prevalence of firearms amongst students in American schools, including: shooting fatalities and woundings…

To facilitate the learning process, each school's staff must be empowered to maintain strong, consistent discipline; however, school discipline maintenance is also a total community responsibility. Whenever possible, teachers should solicit parental assistance in correcting discipline problems. Fort Wayne Community School Employees or other adults…

This paper examines the reported decisions, one unreported decision, and two Attorney Generals' opinions that deal with school punishment for the use of drugs and alcohol off campus and with suspensions pending criminal charges for student offenses committed off school property. (Author)

California educators have been given broad discretionary powers to control students who misuse drugs or narcotics, and to develop drug education programs. This paper outlines and discusses legislation dealing with disciplinary actions against drug offenders, and delineates school responsibilities for developing and implementing effective drug…

The author of this paper maintains that corporal punishment is a desirable alternative to permanent suspension (expulsion) in cases involving unmanageable students. There are restrictions that must be placed on the use of corporal punishment so that it is a beneficial and not a destructive force. No physical harm should be done to students. The…

Describes a small scale study aimed at taking an objective, in-depth look at the personality and behavioral characteristics of a small group of children excluded from school, by comparing them with other children in their peer group, who had not been excluded. (Editor)