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......
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