Group Opposes Zero-Tolerance School Policies

The American Bar Assn. on Monday approved by a resounding margin a resolution opposing zero-tolerance policies in schools.

School districts across the country have adopted such policies, with mandatory expulsions or suspensions for alcohol, drug and weapons offenses by students.

Michael Johnson, chairman of the bar association’s criminal justice section, said he hopes the resolution will spur Congress to enact legislation encouraging local school boards to do away with the controversial policies.

In recent years, some districts have softened their policies after concluding that the punishments were too harsh for relatively minor infractions or for mistaken ones.

The bar association says such policies violate students’ due process rights by requiring automatic punishment regardless of circumstances, said Johnson, a prosecutor in Merrimack County, N.H.

Noting that the policies are popular in some communities where parents and the public fear for the safety of children in school, Johnson said that “the demands of society to be safe can be satisfied by making our system more responsive, not less human.”

The resolution, approved in a 337-28 vote, urges schools to maintain strong policies against gun possession but ensure that students’ rights are protected when they are being disciplined.

The bar association took up the issue after a number of high-profile cases, such as the 13-year-old from Denton County, Texas, who was assigned to write a scary Halloween story and spent six days in jail for writing about shooting up a school.

The resolution says that zero-tolerance policies are increasingly unnecessary, since crime has been declining on public school campuses since 1990. Robert Schwartz, executive director of the Juvenile Law Center in Philadelphia, noted that although they are supposed to punish all students equally, zero-tolerance policies have disproportionately affected blacks and Latinos.

“Does the ABA carry any weight? I don’t know,” Johnson said. “But standing by while injustice is being done is not responsible.”

The bar association is the largest professional membership organization in the world, with more than 400,000 members.

Other ABA resolutions passed Monday include:

* Supporting a review of the nature and cause of voting problems in the 2000 presidential election.

* Opposing the use of secret evidence in immigration proceedings.

* Calling for unaccompanied immigrant children to have lawyers appointed for them at government expense during all stages of immigration proceedings.