Zero-tolerance or zero consequences? Texas lawmakers debate school discipline

Zero-tolerance or zero consequences? Texas lawmakers debate school discipline

A Republican senator told his colleagues that public schools are serving a “different type of kid today than what there was 20 years ago.”

From ‘zero tolerance to zero consequences,’ state senators hear about Sen. Perry’s bills to crack down on ‘war zone’ in Texas classrooms - Lubbock Lights

Image from Texas Education Agency website Texas teachers serve in a violent and dangerous “war zone,” state senators were told Tuesday morning. “Let me provide some real-life examples. A young student throws a pair of scissors at a teacher. A student tells a pregnant teacher that he wants to kill her baby. A student uses profanity loudly. … None of those students had a diagnosed disability,” testified Kaylan Dixon-Smith, former teacher now an a…

Have Texas schools gone too soft on student discipline? These lawmakers and educators think so.

For nearly two decades, Texas schools have gone easier on kids. Aiming to keep more students in class and under adult supervision, state legislators and many school districts limited in-school and out-of-school suspensions. At the same time, education leaders increasingly substituted tough discipline for restorative discipline practices designed to help troublemakers understand and correct their behavior.But in the wake of the pandemic, students…