Agrument on Zero-Tolerance Policy - 1056 Words

Zero Tolerance for College Students Gladwell stated in, â€Å"No Mercy† (2006), â€Å"this is the age of zero tolerance.† Zero tolerance policies, which are regulations for specific issues such as weapons, drugs, cheating and alcohol, are adopted by many schools and workplaces today. According to a government study, more than three quarters of the schools in America use zero policy to restrict students from misconduct. However, statistics show that there is no evidence proving that bad behaviors get deterred or prevented after the application of zero tolerance policy. This is especially true for young adults since they are more likely to misbehave. In this paper, I argue that the use of discretion is crucial to maintain fairness and each violation†¦show more content†¦However, other cases where weapons are not used as harmful hurting tools should not be applied upon zero tolerance policy. The two examples that Urbina provided in â€Å"It’s a Fork, Itâ⠂¬â„¢s a Spoon, It’s a †¦ Weapon?† (2009) clearly proved this point. A third-grade girl got expelled for receiving a birthday cake along with a knife from her grandmother. The knife was meant to cut the birthday cake, not to hurt anyone. Also, Zachery had to spend forty-five days in his district’s reform school for bringing a camping utensil that can serve as a knife, fork or spoon for lunch to school because he got too excited about joining the Cub Scouts. In such cases where the children are no more than innocent youths making some minors mistakes subconsciously, a thorough use of discretion should be put into practice. Cheating, as another element of zero tolerance policy, ought to be judged differently due to the situations and the cheaters. During my freshman year in high school in China, I was a straight A+ student. However I was once falsely accused cheating and offered a zero on the test when the girl sitting next to me tried to copy my answers durin g the mid-term examination. The case got solved since the monitoring camera taped the whole thing and proved that I was doing nothing wrong. Jack, a naughty boy I knew from middle school, never paid attention to the teacher and always cheated during quizzes and tests. He was caught cheating last year during a