A zero tolerance policy is one which requires a severe penalty to be imposed which is unbending in its imposition, and often does not give allowance for extenuating circumstances. It is, as it states, completely intolerant of the behavior for which it requires consequences, no matter what. In their article on zero tolerance for Phi Delta Kappan, Russ Skiba and Reece Peterson define zero tolerance as "policies that punish all offenses severely, no matter how minor"(2).
According to Skiba and Peterson, the term zero tolerance evolved from federal and state drug enforcement policies in the 1980s. In the late 1980s, the concept began to catch on in schools. In 1989 school districts in Orange County, California, and Louisville, Kentucky, introduced zero-tolerance policies that mandated expulsion for possession of drugs or participation in gang-related activity. In New York, the superintendent of the Yonkers public schools proposed a zero tolerance program which included restricted access to schools, a ban on hats, immediate suspension for any school disruption, and increased use of law enforcement. By 1993, school boards across the nation were adopting zero tolerance policies which not only included drugs and weapons but also tobacco-related offenses and school disruption.
In 1994, Congress passed the Gun-Free Schools Act, bringing zero tolerance school policies to a national level. This law requires states that receive federal funds to expel any student who brings a weapon to school for at least one calendar year. It also requires the student's referral to the juvenile justice system. One flexible aspect of this law is that it allows one-year expulsions to be modified by the chief administrator of each local school district on a case-by-case basis (First 8; Sk ...