When our children in Texas public schools can be accused, found guilty, ticketed, often times arrested, and removed from school before parents are notified, there is something intrinsically wrong with a system that claims to work in partnership with parents for the education and well being of their children.
"We hold children to higher standards than we hold adults," said Billy Jacobs, former senior director of the safe schools division of the TEA. "We don't leave any room for children to make mistakes."
Why are public school administrators so determined to lock down our children?
We believe that a report released by the FBI in 2000 after the Columbine incident gave school administrators the green light to abuse and deny the rights of our children and parents. The report speaks of profiling student behavior and this profiling is currently used to reduce the use of common sense and throw any child who even looks the other way into the public school gulag system.
This report went out to all school districts and a Katy ISD insider confirmed to Texas Zero Tolerance that this report greatly influenced the superintendent to allow a general crackdown on student behavior. The result was an explosion of students being referred to disciplinary placements making Katy ISD one of the largest abusers. Because of this idiocy, Katy Zero Tolerance was born and later became Texas Zero Tolerance, a group dedicated to bringing common sense back into the equation of disciplinary punishment.
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When did we allow the 3 “Rs” to be replaced with the 3 “Cs” Citation, Court, and Criminal record?
As parents of children in the Texas public school system, we are constantly reminded that we are partners in the education of our children.
Many parents in Texas do not realize that if their child is accused of a disciplinary infraction at their school, they can be brought into the school principal’s office, interrogated by school officials, interrogated by police, arrested and taken to jail before parents are notified. We call this passing the paddle to law enforcement. (more >)
The 80th Legislative Session has closed with no zero tolerance reform – and not for a lack of effort. Besides Texas Zero Tolerance, many more groups asked the Legislature to do something. Obviously it fell on deaf ears. On the House side, there was a tremendous effort for reform and a bill passed unanimously from their side. The Senate Education Committee refused to pass this bill to the Senate floor and so, for all of their Chair’s agreement with our cause, she could not deliver. Shame on them.
More kudos to Katy ISD over disciplinary review…
Over the summer, KISD reversed a punishment of expulsion and DAEP for a girl who wrote graffiti on a wall – giving a more appropriate punishment to fit the crime. Now a student, who had prescription medication planted on her, had the decision reviewed and was found innocent of the charges by the district. A corner has been turned toward the use of common sense. Other districts throughout Texas must begin following KISD’s lead.
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Read an essay by the student who was found innocent in KISD. It's entitled Genesis, describing how her faith kept her strong through the ordeal of being arrested.
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State Court upholds ISD's use of Discretion: Tarkington ISD v. Ellis, (Tex.App.-Beaumont)
August 23, 2006
The trial court did not abuse its discretion in granting the student's request for a temporary injunction prohibiting the school district from continuing to enforce the order that expelled the student for possession of brass knuckles, a prohibited weapon. The Education Code permitted the districts to decline to expel students for unknowingly possessing prohibited weapons if intent was adopted as a factor in the expulsion decisions. The district chose a policy that allowed it to decline to expel a student under circumstances where possession was involuntary. Thus, the court could have reasonably concluded that the district's hearing officer erroneously thought the Code mandated the student's expulsion for unknowingly possessing a prohibited weapon and the court could have concluded that the hearing officer made error of law.
Recent Announcements, Info, Etc.
Welcome to the Party!
A new group has formed in California to promote disciplinary reform in the Conejo Valley Unified School District. For information contact:
The Voice of Truth - a new website designed to assist Texas parents who are going through disciplinary problems at schools.
Young children in disciplinary alternative settings - Do you know a young child who has been placed by a school district in an alternative setting because of his/her behavior?
Advocacy, Inc. is looking into reports of very young children being inappropriately placed in disciplinary alternative education settings (DAEPs). If you know of such a situation involving a child 6 years old or younger, please ask the child’s parent(s) to contact: Alison Little at alittle@advocacyinc.org or 512-586-3658 x. 279. Thank you!
Children's essays describing how the current disciplinary system in Texas has affected their lives
Alternative Education
Many parents have contacted us concerning alternative education for their children, such as home-schooling and private schools.
Once we can compile a list in certain areas, we would like to add this as a feature, but we need your help. Let us know of alternatives in your area and we'll post. To get it started:
Rep. Rob Eissler, R The Woodlands and Eddie Evans, Co-Director TZT appear on a segment of Libertarian Politics Live - Listen to the radio interview conducted on 6/19/07 - Rep. Eissler and Eddie discuss what needs to be done
The Texas American Civil Liberties Union is collecting information from those that are being hurt by the abuse of disciplinary laws in Texas for potential legal action. If you feel the ACLU can help in your case, you can request legal assistance from the group.
Backlash Against 'Zero Tolerance' Grows - By Ray Henry, AP - Story shows a growing trend of parents who are now against zero tolerance laws and disciplinary actions. In an online poll, 76% of 120,000 + respondents are against continuing with zero tolerance policies in our schools.
No law can prevent senseless violence on our campuses and throwing away good kids can actually lead to alienation and promote the behavior pattern that the abuse of these policies seek to prevent.
Welcome to Texas Zero Tolerance
“Zero tolerance has not been shown to improve school climate or school safety.”
- APA Task Force 