Zero Tolerance Case Analysis and Rationale Template

Part 1: Case Analysis

1. Brief summary of the case:

5th grade student brings an old handgun to school for a school report. There is a
zero-tolerance policy against guns at school. Teacher who is aware of policy, did
not report incident to families and parents.

2. Identify the issues to be resolved:

The problem is a student brought a gun to school and there is a zero-tolerance
gun policy at the school. Teacher also did not communicate what happened with
admin. or stakeholders.

3. Stakeholders involved in the issues:

Administrators, teacher, student who brought gun, parents/family of the student
who brought the gun, students in the class, parents and families of students in
the class.

4. One or two existing laws or court rulings that relate to the issues:
1994 Gun Free Schools Act

5. District policies that relate to the issues:

Policy # 5182- 1.2.2. The Alpine School District Safe Schools Policy prohibits disruptive
acts and/or bullying; dangerous weapons;

a. Dangerous weapons. Any item capable of causing death or serious bodily

injury, or a facsimile or representation of the item. Dangerous weapons as
defined by these rules shall include but not be limited to firearms…

6. Possible solutions to the issues:

a. Communicate/Meet with families of the students in the class. Discuss the
issue/issues. This was obviously not meant as a threat and student made
a mistake. Propose the situation as if it was one of their children and what
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 consequence they would want to have. Teacher should have notified
parents about the incident and asked to meet with parents. Come to a
suitable solution about future instances that may arise. Provide education
about the policies to the students/staff. It is likely this girl did not
understand that what she was doing was wrong since her intent was to do
a project.
b. The student receives consequences that were set up for the zero-tolerance
policy. The parents of all the students (in the class) are met with.
c. The student receives adjusted consequences based on the situation.
Parents are notified of the situation. Adjustments/clauses are added to the
policy.

7. The solutions you are choosing to resolve the issues:

The first solution and a decided consequence-i.e. educational classes, short
suspension etc. Also, consequences for the teacher as well.

8. Action steps (2-5) for implementing your solution, including a timeline for each step:
Reach out to parents-- immediately
Set a time to meet—less than 2 days
Deal with consequences within 1 week of occurance

9. Potential moral and legal consequences of the solutions:

a. Parents can probably sue
b. Angry stakeholders (both for and against the solution(s))
c. Teacher removal or reassignment
d. Principal Reassignment

Part 2: Rationale

My rationale for this case comes from the idea that Zero Tolerance Policies can do more

harm than good. (University of Virginia, n.d.) Zero Tolerance Policies take away the

professionalism of administration and the need to exercise their judgment and integrity. All zero

tolerance cases are not created equal. The age, maturity, grade etc of the student must be taken

into account. Just as in our criminal justice system, there is not a hard and fast rule for crimes.
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For instance, not everyone who commits murder gets the same sentence. Not everyone who

speeds gets the same consequence. Why would we do that to children? Children, who are

learning how to be educated, contributing, valuable members of society and who are

developmentally immature? My school district policy states, “Alpine School District

administrators are responsible for collaboratively implementing the Mission, Vision, Values and

Goals adopted by the Board of Education and within guidelines established by the governing

board policy, state and federal law.” And one of the mission, vision, values and goals of our

district is to, “ensure all students acquire essential knowledge, skills and dispositions.”(Alpine

School District, n,d,) How can a child acquire knowledge when they make a mistake and then

they have a mandatory suspension from school? Where is the learning and growth we committed

to give them? If this situation was different, and the child knowingly brought the gun to school,

and knew of the policy, the consequences would be different.

In one case about zero tolerance, a five-year-old in California was expelled after he found

a razor blade at his bus stop and carried it to school and gave it to his teacher. (University of

Virginia, n.d.) This five-year-old, may have not even known he had a weapon or wanted to

protect someone else by bringing it in and giving it to a trusted adult. I had a 6 year old student

this year bring a plastic toy sword to school. He did not know or understand that was not

allowed. It would not have been just of me to suspend or expel him. This student’s need was to

be educated. He needed to understand that students cannot bring items that even resemble

weapons to school. He doesn’t see it as a weapon but rather a harmless toy.

One area of this case study that I felt very strongly about was the teacher’s role in this

situation. The teacher needed to be trained and had prior communication about what to do in this

situation. Hopefully there was a relationship of trust with the administration, so that she would

have known right away that this was definitely an important instance the administration needed

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to know about. I would feel very frustrated as the administrator knowing that something of this

instance happened without my knowledge, until I heard about it from a disgruntled parent. An

administrator needs to set up relationships with their staff (and stakeholders) that allows and

communicates their high expectations. Administrators have to set up relationships of trust to help

avoid situations such as this. I feel like this case study situation could have all easily been

avoided by prevention. Yes, a student may have still brought a gun to school, but then they

would have been taught prior that it was against school rules, and the teacher would have

handled the situation better with the help and support of the administration.

References:

Alpine School District. (2022). Alpine school district policy. https://alpineschools.org/policy/

University of Virginia. (n.d.). Zero Tolerance. Retrieved March 23, 2022, from

https://education.virginia.edu/faculty-research/centers-labs-projects/research-labs/youth-

violence-project/violence-schools-and-1

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