Lawmakers Look To Revamp School ‘Zero Tolerance’

February 26, 2014

While including an exception for threats to school safety, an Orlando Democrat on Tuesday filed a bill that would seek to change the state’s “zero tolerance” laws to prevent students from being expelled for disciplinary issues.

The bill, filed by Sen. Geraldine Thompson, would require school districts to use alternatives to expulsion or referral to law-enforcement agencies, except in circumstances such as when students bring firearms to school. Rep. Clovis Watson, D-Alachua, filed the House version of the proposal last week.

Meanwhile, another zero-tolerance billĀ  has started moving through the House that would prevent children from being disciplined for simulating guns while playing or wearing clothes that depict firearms. The Senate version of that National Rifle Association-backed proposalĀ  is scheduled to be heard Monday in the Senate Criminal Justice Committee.

by The News Service of Florida


Comments

9 Responses to “Lawmakers Look To Revamp School ‘Zero Tolerance’”

  1. Preda on February 27th, 2014 2:05 pm

    Love and compassion would also help. It is easier to love than hate.

  2. Gembeaux on February 27th, 2014 8:22 am

    Perhaps school administrators could follow the example of the US Attorney General, who simply ignores the laws and regulations with which he and his boss disagree.

  3. Willene Bryan on February 27th, 2014 8:01 am

    We all really do need to pray for our schools, arm service men and women, nation, towns and for our leaders of this once great Country. We all need to Pray

  4. Buddy on February 27th, 2014 7:09 am

    Things went wrong when we took God and Prayer out of our schools, We have some parents that don’t care, The school can’t use the paddle anymore and the kids don’t get it at home, and they don’t have God in their homes. The Bible tells how to raise a child.
    The Bible tells parents how to run your family and raise you children.
    This country is in bad shape and we will pay some day.

  5. sam on February 26th, 2014 4:09 pm

    i can remember going school in the fall with my shotgun in the truck. it was a common sight. we went dove hunting, squirrel hunting, etc. boys had fights in school. no one hauled them off to jail. the principal tore the backside out of their britches and called their parents who repeated the process at home. ahhh, the good ol days.

  6. melodies4us on February 26th, 2014 3:43 pm

    American children need to receive the precious gift of TIME from the people they love.

  7. the otherbrother on February 26th, 2014 3:10 pm

    This is a terrible idea. That would mean that school teachers and “administrators” will have to use judgment and discernment in performing their duties. it is so much easier to just say “it’s out of my hands, we have a zero tolerance policy and it’s too bad your 7 year old will now have a criminal record and be manhandled by the system but that’s the policy”, We can’t have school kids bringing an aspirin for their headaches, nail clippers for personal grooming or playing with dangerous GI Joe toys and gun shaped food items. Who will be responsible for errant sesame seed that works loose from the bun or the dangerous cherry sprinkles that find their way off the deadly pop-tart??? Without zero tolerance, the schools will wind up in a perpetual state of lock-down.

  8. 429SCJ on February 26th, 2014 11:03 am

    @Michelle, the problems in our schools started in the mid 60s, a decline in standards and objectives.

    Weather fueled by deluded utopian pipe dreams or devious agenda, social experiments belong in a laboratory, not the class room.

  9. Michelle on February 26th, 2014 8:28 am

    I am so glad I am about done with schools. I don’t know what or when things went wrong, But schools are crazy lately. Everyone has seem to have lost their minds.