RALEIGH, N.C..—North Carolina legislators appeared headed toward a bipartisan consensus that it may be time to junk the zero-tolerance policies against weapons and student violence that mushroomed after the Columbine school slayings in 1999.
The state Senate voted 50-0 on Wednesday to approve revamping laws on student discipline, including an end to automatic suspensions for students who even appeared they could threaten or hurt others.
If the bill is approved by the House and signed into law, administrators will have greater leeway in deciding what justifies suspending a child from school starting with the coming school year in August.
Expelling or suspending a student for more than 10 days would be limited to serious violations that threaten safety or seriously disrupt the educational environment. Federal law continues to require that students in possession of a firearm or destructive device on school property must be suspended for a year.
The legislation, which tries to standardize when and why schools should suspend students for other reasons, came because officials recognized that students too-often or too-long suspended eventually drop out, said bill sponsor Sen. Jean Preston, R-Carteret.
“This sort of gives us a little more common sense in determining what is serious and needs (a child) to be expelled and what is not,” the former schoolteacher said.
Zero-tolerance policies have led to off-campus suspensions for students packing a potential weapon and bad intent, but also created criticism for automatically punishing good kids who might be guilty of no more than an oversight.
In January, an Oklahoma City first-grader was told that because of his school district’s zero-tolerance policy he would get an in-school suspension after gesturing with his fingers as if he was shooting a gun.
A 10-year-old student in Hilton Head, S.C., was suspended for at least two days in 2008 after his pencil sharpener broke and a teacher found the small razor blade inside it. A police report said it was obvious the metal piece came from a child’s plastic pencil sharpener, and the boy had a pencil that looked recently sharpened.
Colorado lawmakers changed the state’s “zero tolerance” law in 2009 after a 17-year-old drill team commander was suspended for having practice rifles in her vehicle. That spared a Grand Junction kindergartner from expulsion after elementary school officials determined the boy brought his toy gun to school to show friends his new plaything.
North Carolina’s largest school system in Wake County is in the process of dismantling its no-tolerance policy for its 143,000 students.
State schools superintendent June Atkinson said Wednesday the automatic punishments for children who by nature make mistakes no longer make sense.
“When you have a zero-tolerance policy, a first-grader who accidently leaves a toy pistol in his book bag can get the same punishment as a child who brings a gun to school with the intention of doing harm,” she said. “What the student does wrong should determine the consequence and zero-tolerance policies do not give that flexibility to people who have to discipline children.”
Even without the law, suspensions have been decreasing.
Short-term suspensions fell 5.5 percent from 2008-09 to 277,206 in 2009-10, the state Department of Public Instruction said. Long-term suspensions over the same period dropped 6.2 percent to 3,368.
North Carolina ranks third nationally in the rate of short-term school suspensions of up to 10 days out of school behind South Carolina and Delaware, according to The National Center for Education Statistics.
The new school discipline laws also would:
— allow suspensions for off-campus conduct only if it’s expected to have a direct and immediate impact on school operation or safety.
— limit suspensions for truancy and tardiness to no more than two days.
— allow superintendents and principals to consider the student’s intent, disciplinary and academic history, and other factors when considering long-term suspension.
