The implementation becomes particularly relevant for schools with large populations of students of color and students of low socioeconomic status, as these zero tolerance policies often lead to high levels of out-of-school suspensions and expulsions. These policies disproportionately impact students of color and students with disabilities (Brownstein, 2010). As evidence, 18% of students enrolled in preschool are African American; however, African Americans make up 42% of students suspended at least once, and 48% of the preschool students who are suspended more than one time (US Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights, 2014). Overall, African American students are 3.5 times more likely than white students to be suspended or expelled, and Hispanic students are 1.5 times more likely to be suspended and twice as likely to be expelled than white students (Brownstein, 2010). Students with disabilities are four times more likely than students without a disability to be suspended (New York Civil Liberties Union, 2011). If we break it down by disability we can see that 76% of students with learning disabilities and 90.2% of students with emotional behavioral disorder will be suspended at least once, while 37% of students with other disabilities, such as autism, will be suspended (Fable, Thompson, Plotke, Carmichael, March banks, & Booth, 2011). These practices generally cause students to fall so far behind in the curriculum that it becomes impossible for them to catch up and, as a result, they often drop out of school (Brownstein, 2010; Stearns & Glennie, 2006).
According to Cramer, Gonzalez, and Pellegrini-Lafont (2014), zero tolerance policies influenced the school community but most importantly, many different types of students expulsion upon their personalities and characteristics. Especially, African American students more likely suspended; and by follow Hispanic students. Moreover, students with disabilities are also part of this category because of their physical or mental disorders. As a role of educator, personally, I would accept the data that the authors provided. But however, I don’t think that is the causes for these types of students. Upon my curiosity, I will think critically, what are the reasons influenced students learning?
I believe there are two main factors related to each student ‘s life which is very important to me. First factor is socioeconomic. Students’ learning might be affected because of paying rental fees, transportation fees, food needs, etc. It also might be a case that their parents could not be able to support them because of the serious sickness or injury. Second factor is school environment. In nowadays, the gates of public schools established as investigation area which similar to the customs inspection in an airport. This atmosphere of school environment may cause students to behave inappropriately, which leads to different kinds of disorders. So I want to turn to the legislation, should we have to discard our gun control law upon the second amendment of the Constitution?