Volume 3, Issue 6, June 1995


DON'T EXPEL STUDENTS FOR BEING KIDS SCHOOLS TOLD

So-called "zero tolerance" policies to deal with school violence are fostering a "troubling" criminalization of petty childhood behaviour, says the director of a leading treatment centre for children at risk.

"Kids are being suspended for typical childhood behaviour," said Ken Greenberg, executive director of Earlscourt Child and Family Centre in Toronto.

"Instead of being kicked out and treated like crimunals, they should be getting help," he said.

Greenberg noted that one child he knows received a week's suspension for jabbing another child with a pencil.

"The kids were just playing," he said.

The centre has just completed a survey of school-violence policies in 126 boards across the country and found that almost all boards had provisions to suspend or expel students.

"Unfortunately there seems to be a greater emphasis on what to do after the violence than on how to prevent it," Greenberg said.

Just 18% of school boards surveyed had policies that focused on intervention and prevention of violence while 48% of boards emphasized punishment for misbehaviour.

Greenberg, whose centre treats children under age 12 who have been in contact with the police, said society's growing support for zero tolerance policies toward school violence will have dire consequences.

"The research shows that the earlier you can intervene, the better chance there is of having a mediating effect," he said. "School boards that simply want to get these kids out of their schools are taking a very short-sighted approach."

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"Religion NOW" is published in limited edition by the Rev. Ross E. Readhead, B.A., B.D., Certificate of Corrections, McMaster University, in the interest of furthering knowledge and participation in religion. Dialogue is invited and welcomed.