The death of the zero tolerance policy
“We strongly condemn this behavior and the use of these words in all situations. And we are deeply sorry for the hurt that they have caused in our community,” said Mr. Eric Alburtus, principal of Portage Central High School, in a public statement.
He said this following outrage and controversy due to a threatening 24-second-video filled with racial slurs and featuring a white student waving around a handgun.
“I’m learning to distrust the word prevention. These things are going to happen, bad things are gonna happen… We can do better. What does it mean to do better? That’s what we’re struggling with… It’s ego to say we can prevent bad things from happening, but I do think we can do better to minimize the chance to have that sort of ugliness happen again.”
“I’m learning to distrust the word prevention. These things are going to happen, bad things are gonna happen… We can do better.” — Eric Alburtus
If the actions are condemned as the school says, then why was a seemingly light punishment handed down? The answer is the State of Michigan Department of Education.
The old zero-tolerance policies have been removed due to Michigan’s Department of Education’s attempt to make itself look better among national standings. Allow me to explain. Back in 2017, the state of Michigan enacted their new version of “Michigan Compilation of School Discipline Laws and Regulations,” the goal of which was to help cutdown on suspensions and expulsions.
The laws have helped since enacted; expulsions are down 12 percent and out of school suspensions have dropped as well. This has, in turn, caused in-school suspensions to rise. Other alternative methods of punishment have also seen a rise in usage. But what else is there to do when the state ties the hands of the educators and administrators, leaving room for the students to walk all over them? Essentially, taking away the ability to suspend and expel would be like if Governor Whitmer told the police they weren’t allowed to use handcuffs or make arrests.
This attempt to lower expulsions and suspensions isn’t helping the students and it’s certainly not helping the administrators or teachers. This attempt by the state of Michigan is nice and has the right ideas at heart. The problem arises when creating a be-all, end-all system to oversee countless different situations and scenarios. A set standard as opposed to looking at each example case by case.
Setting an example in this way isn’t always a bad thing; it helps take care of a majority of instances where students did something wrong. Whereas in the past, these actions would get them expelled, now they would merely get suspended. This way a student could still could get a full education. It seems as Michigan as a whole wants to shift its focus from punishment to rehabilitation. When I shared this thought with Mr. Alburtus, he added,
photo by dylan marzke
“Yes, and I think that’s the right direction to move in. It’s a fascinating conversation that’s been happening for the last 5-8 years… I’ve learned a lot of things about my own practice… There’s a lot of things we just don’t do anymore.”
Alburtus continued to talk about the days when they would give out of school suspensions for skipping class and the laughable hypocrisy in methods no longer used due to their ineffectiveness. But the be-all, end-all idea is nice, but in a place like schools it just doesn’t work. Not every situation applies to the codes set in place back in 2017, so the administrators have to play a guessing game to see how the scenario fits.
When it comes to education, creating the safest environment for students to learn is the goal near the top of every student hand book in America. The school will do its best to achieve this goal, but when the state inhibits the school from doing its job is when the problem arises. Skipping school is one thing, but creating a hateful, vile, threatening, and embarrassing video is a whole other issue.