Arrested in school: offenses that once earned suspensions or 'time-outs' are now resulting in handcuffs and trips to juvenile-detention centers.

The 14-year-old girl arrived at her school in Toledo, Ohio, wearing a low-cut midriff top under an unbuttoned sweater. It was a clear violation of the dress code, and school officials gave her a bowling shirt to put on. She refused. She also rejected an oversize T-shirt.

"It was real ugly," says the girl, whose mother did not want her to be identified.

It was a standoff. So the city police officer assigned to the school handcuffed the girl, put her in a police car, and took her to the detention center at the county juvenile courthouse. She was booked on a misdemeanor charge and placed in a holding cell for several hours until her mother picked her up.

The girl was one of more than two dozen Toledo students arrested in school during a single month last fall for offenses like being loud and disruptive, cursing at school officials, shouting at classmates, and violating the dress code. They had all violated the city's safe school ordinance.

In cities and suburbs around the country, schools are increasingly sending students to juvenile detention centers for the sort of adolescent misbehavior that used to be handled by school administrators.

ORDER IN THE CLASSROOM

"The goal is not to put kids out, but to maintain classrooms free of disruptions that make it impossible for teachers to teach and kids to learn," says Jane Bruss, the spokeswoman for the "Toledo public schools.

Others say the trend has gone too far. "We're demonizing children," says James Ray, the administrative judge for the Lucas County Juvenile Court, which handled the girl's case.

Ray is concerned about the rise in school-related cases. There were 1,727 such cases in Lucas County in 2002, up from 1,237 in 2000. Fred Whitman, the court's intake officer, says that only a handful of cases--perhaps 2 percent-involved serious offenses like assaulting a teacher or taking a gun to school.

In Ohio, Virginia, Kentucky, and Florida, juvenile-court judges say their courtrooms are at risk of being overwhelmed by student misconduct cases that should be handled in the schools. Although few statistics are available, anecdotal evidence suggests that such cases are on the rise.

"Everybody agreed--no matter what side of the system they're from--that they are seeing increasing numbers of kids coming to court for school-based offenses," says Andy Block, who assisted in a 2001 study of Virginia's juvenile justice system by the American Bar Association.

Many of the court cases around the country involve special-education students whose behavior is often related to their disabilities, Block and others point out.

Experts say the growing criminalization of student misbehavior can be traced to the broad zero-tolerance policies states and local districts began enacting in the mid-1990s in response to a sharp increase in the number of juveniles committing homicides with guns, and to school shootings. While the juvenile homicide rate has since fallen, and many studies have found that school violence is rare, the public perception of schools and students as dangerous remains.

Toledo's safe-schools ordinance was seldom enforced until 1995, juvenile court officials say. Arrests in the past year or so include two middle-school boys whose crime was turning off the lights in the girls' bathroom and an 11-year-old girl who was arrested for "hiding out in the school and not going to class," according to the police report, which also notes, "The suspect continuously does not listen in class and disrupts the learning process of other students."

A CULTURE SHIFT

Educational researchers and school officials say that in many districts budget cuts are leading to larger classes and reductions in mental health services, which in turn increases behavior problems. In addition, educators complain that parents are less helpful today in helping schools enforce discipline.

But others say schools simply know they can send hard-to-manage students to court, and so they do. "The culture has shifted," says Marsha Levick, legal director of the Juvenile Law Center of Philadelphia, which is representing an 8-year-old boy charged with disrupting his special-education class. "Juvenile court is seen as an antidote for all sorts of behavior that in the past resulted in time-out or suspension."

Violations That Once Netted Students Suspensions May Now Bring Arrest

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

* The article states that school violence is rare. So why do you suppose that the public regards schools and students as dangerous?

* Why do you think schools have dress codes? Do you agree with dress codes?

TEACHING OBJECTIVES

To help students understand a growing trend in America's schools: the arrest of students for conduct that once would have been punished by in-school discipline such as suspension or detention.

CLASSROOM STRATEGIES

BEFORE READING: Write "Gun-Free Schools Act" on the board. Tell students that this federal law requires school districts to expel students who bring guns to school. While this article does not relate directly to guns, many experts on school discipline see the law as the first step toward a new trend in school discipline: arresting students for violations that once were punished within the school.

CRITICAL THINKING: Continue with the idea that punishment under the Gun-Free Schools Act evolved into today's student arrests. Tell students that the Advancement Project, mentioned in the article, says that many schools have applied the policy to any conduct infraction. If this is true, why might schools go in this direction, especially in view of the fact that school violence is rare? What might account for the less lenient treatment of unruly students today than in the past?

RULE WRITING: Ask students to assume that they are serving on a joint student-faculty disciplinary committee. Their job is to draw up a list of in-school offenses and then write a brief description of what punishment should be meted out for each one.

If you wish, you can help students along with a list of offenses. A few examples: fighting without a weapon; disrupting a class by talking loudly; disobeying a teacher; writing graffiti on a wall; destroying school property. Have students write what they believe is an appropriate punishment for each offense. Then have students read their recommendations aloud. Use the recommendations to promote discussion of appropriate punishments.

WEB WATCH: www.advancementproject.org/news.html is the Web site of the Advancement Project. The site includes a report alleging that schools disproportionately punish minority students. Scroll to "Symposium Examines ..."

Upfront QUIZ 3

DIRECTIONS: Circle the letter next to the best answer.

1. More than two dozen Toledo high school students were arrested during a single month. Among their offenses:

a cheating. b running in school halls. c being loud and disruptive. d being late to school.

2. In Toledo and elsewhere, arrested students may be taken to

a mental institutions. b prison. c foster homes. d a juvenile detention center.

3. The reason students are arrested, says Jane Bruss, spokeswoman for Toledo public schools, is to

a punish those who are guilty. b drive bad apples out of the school. c create an atmosphere where teachers can teach and students can learn. d identify troublemakers before they become real threats to society.

4. What is the trend in school arrests in the Toledo area?

a Arrests are rising. b Arrests have dropped somewhat. c Arrests have remained about the same. d After failing over a year, arrests are slowly rising.

5. "Zero tolerance" for students' bad behavior in part began

a with passage of a federal law called the No Child Left Behind Act. b following a report on school discipline issued by the U.S. Department of Education. c as a result of school shootings and, homicides with guns committed by students in the mid-1990s. d after state laws granted police easier access to schools.

6. Studies find that the public perception of schools and students is that

a school violence is rare. b the education system is constantly improving. c both are dangerous. d the education system is not as good as it used to be.

ANSWER KEY

The skills exercises on pages 4, 5, and 6 of this teaching guide are for you to photocopy and hand out in class.

1. (c) being loud and disruptive.

2. (d) a juvenile detention center.

3. (c) create an atmosphere where teachers can teach and students can learn.

4. (a) Arrests are rising.

5. (c) as a result of school shootings and homicides with guns committed by students in the mid-1990s.

6. (c) both are dangerous.

Sara Rimer covers education for The New York Times.