Just before the school year opened, about a dozen Cedar Cliff High School student volunteers played out the scenario of a school shooting and its bloody, chaotic aftermath for the camera. The Pennsylvania State Police will be using the video to train incoming troopers in rapid deployment should the horrors of Columbine happen here.

Frightening. Even communities that haven’t had a direct impact from the latest bout of school violence are preparing for it.

But while the police are training themselves to deal with violence, the school systems have been creating smoke and mirror policies which, in fact, serve as a diversion from other prevalent problems that are tearing apart our schools, problems so entrenched in our system that administrators and school boards don’t want to risk their political necks even attempting to address them. These issues are less conspicuous and yet just as dangerous to the well being of our children.

There’s plenty of finger pointing. But does anybody really know what’s going on?

Ironically, the policy in fact renders administrators and teachers impotent. No thought on how to defend a disciplinary decision or about the student in question is necessary; just call, "Zero Tolerance!" Is it a gun or a nail clipper? Doesn’t matter: "Zero Tolerance!" Is that an inhaler in your pocket or are you huffing at school? No need to worry: "Zero Tolerance!"

MODE On The Street Asks:

The most obvious question that arises from Zero Tolerance is: How effective is it? Since Columbine, dozens of other scares have been reported. One West Shore school system was shut down for a day last year after a bomb threat; another had a tremendous drop in attendance due to the rumors of explosives placed in the school. Children have been punished or arrested for having pointed objects. Yet ask any student who’s paying attention; he or she will tell you where to find marijuana, LSD, cocaine and other illegal substances. MODE Weekly interviewed one fourth grade child from the West Shore School District who innocently pointed out which kids in the middle school were smoking pot, from whom they were getting it; he also described the effects of huffing — and the knowledge isn’t coming from the Health Ed curriculum. The schools may have banned Midol, Aspirin, and nasal sprays, but they haven’t done a thing to touch the reality of illegal substances in our schools.

What Zero Tolerance has, in fact accomplished, has been the suspension of children as young as six years old on ludicrous charges. In fact, it’s about as effective as putting a spiked collar on your grandmother’s pet poodle.

In the late 1980s, a groundbreaking precedent was set by a lawsuit brought against the Cumberland Valley School District challenging their right to impose reasonable discipline over student behavior. A high school honor society senior and her friends were caught consuming alcohol while on a school field trip. After verification of the events, the District responded by promptly suspending the students in question, in accordance with long standing school policy. Faced with a certain drop in the students’ grade point average that such a suspension would bring, the parents — lawyers themselves — filed a lawsuit against the District. Cumberland Valley administrators were informed that they didn’t have the right to enforce a significant portion of their disciplinary action — the suspension — since it would adversely affect the students’ grades. Why would the teacher who had made the initial intervention bother to do so again?

Indeed, a "Why Bother" attitude toward discipline is a sure result of episodes such as this one. And other teachers explain that there is a current atmosphere of "no discipline allowed," in any case. One West Shore School District elementary school teacher said, "I’m not allowed to give extra homework. We cannot restrict a student from recess. We’re not even allowed to let it affect their class participation grade. If a student misbehaves, I am allowed to send a note home to their parents. That’s it. In a class with 35 students, you can imagine how difficult it can be to maintain order in that way." Another teacher from the same school district lamented, "We follow the school board’s policy of a note home to the parents, but often time it generates no response. No change. Once I had a student take home a test to be signed because the student had done such a poor job. I found myself called into the office by the principal the next day because the parent had made a complaint that I had drawn a ‘frownie face’ on it. The parent said that it was injurious to the child’s self image."

This tying of the teachers’ hands has not gone unnoticed by the average student. Many students MODE interviewed complained of distractions in the classroom and described their frustration in having to suffer the group consequences of the few consistent problem students. One grade schooler remarked that his principal had decided to discontinue recess for third through fifth graders because of a few disciplinary problems. "The disruptive children have long since figured out just how far they can go," angrily remarked a middle school teacher from the Central Dauphin School District, "and have learned how to push it exactly
that far."

An administrator from Cumberland Valley School District said, "The classrooms have changed since most of us have been out of school. We now have students in regular classes with that have to be wheeled in with tubes in their throat. Now I agree that every child deserves to have the best education, but it’s distracting for the other students, and frightening for the teacher, because if something would go wrong … I’ve had problems because I have been forced to put a group of autistic children in a class room right next to a regular class. Any sound or disturbance can throw these kids into a frenzy … Now you know it’s not fair for the children in the one class [to be expected to maintain complete silence], and it isn’t healthy for the [autistic] children either."

Teachers also complain of the increasing hours required every year to develop special education reports and Individual Education Plans (IEP) even while teaching in mainstream classrooms. Statistics from the National Education Association (NEA) estimate that that one in five children in the average classroom has some sort of special education need; with class size averaging 30, that’s six children per class, with everything from Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) to ‘conduct disorder’ (a clinically polite way of describing a child who has absolutely NO respect for authority whatsoever). In some classes, IEP’s have had to accommodate a child’s private therapist who accompanies him to class. Sometimes it’s the student’s probation officer that must be written into the plan … and into the classroom.

Both administrators and teachers admit — quietly — that these situations are problematic. To do so more loudly once again risks invoking the wrath of the Gods of PC. These individuals or interest groups fight on behalf of the single soul who might be left out or inconvenienced in a mainstream situation — seemingly a noble cause until one thinks about the multiple children who may suffer as a result.

In addition, state and federal testing mandates have removed much of a school’s ability to choose its curriculum and its method of teaching. Again, the schools are incurring additional expenses in administering numerous complicated, expensive tests. Many schools adjust curriculum to focus on the tests themselves in an effort to excel on them and thus qualify for special accolades and, of course, grants. One school district in Lancaster County admitted that teachers cancel regularly scheduled classes to free up time to prep the test material so students would be able to "really score." What’s that teaching?

As a result of all this misguided programs, even the most financially stable public school systems are suffering. Because local politicos are busy scoring points with voters by demanding better technology, newer buildings, more classrooms, better sports facilities, and more teacher training — costing hundreds of thousands of dollars a year — home owners and businesses must give more and more every year for solutions that just don’t seem to be solving anything. Some school districts are better equipped to handle these problems than others. Cumberland Valley, for example, with its huge population of wealthy home owners and its flourishing business community, is able to net far more tax money to work with than some of the smaller districts in Perry County. In spite of the difference, the financial burdens run proportionately the same.

So to keep up with the soaring expectations, school districts have been expanding their ideas about revenue. Any parent will tell you with a weary nod about the plethora of fundraising drives now asked of the parents. Recently some schools have added such quiet sources of funds such as candy and soda machines. More and more frequently, schools are using teaching materials, notebooks, and equipment provided by cosmetic companies or fast food joints. Some companies are openly forming advertising deals with the schools to solidify their grip on the teenage market, inundating students with images of consumerism even at school. Schools now have Ocean Spray Cranberry scoreboards, Coca-Cola menu boards, and Sprite textbook covers. Many schools are fighting hard to maintain their integrity in the face of this onslaught of financial pressure, but others are caving, bowled over by the financial needs of their students and the lack of resources of the parents and community.

So where do these vicious circles end? With the junkyard ‘Zero Tolerance’ hound barking its fool head off, the problem pups are piddling on our feet.

An administrator and teacher of 27 years summed it up with an exasperated sigh: "The schools are simply a reflection of society as a whole. The problems that we are seeing in the schools are symptomatic of changes in our society itself."

It can’t be that bad, you say. There is a lot of good news. Teachers are more dedicated than ever. Schools are better equipped to teach students both the information and the technology of our age. Students say that they are more interested in getting a good education and doing something useful with their lives.