To catch up on
what this is all about, read “Clarifying Beliefs About Juvenile Delinquency” to
understand where this is all coming from and why. This myth is one that is
really in the grey area of what may or may not be true. The focus, therefore,
is more about factors that contribute to undesirable behaviors and how those
may be inappropriately blown out of proportion or may lead to worse behaviors because
of the over-reaching consequence.
Myth 2 – All juvenile delinquents have a history of “bad” or criminal behavior.
Respondents shared
views that bring light to the motivation behind strict policies in schools.
“Most juvenile delinquents crave boundaries, someone to care about them.” “They
start their behavior long before they are caught.” The truth of these belief
statements depends wholly on the individual child involved. However, the
rampant acceptance of this belief statement as absolute truth has had dire
consequences. With the idea that offenses are constantly occurring and stricter
boundaries will stop behaviors before they get out of hand, policing in schools
became the initiative-de-jour.
Zero tolerance policies
were widely supported as a means to “crack down” on the misbehaviors occurring
in schools. In theory, extremely strict discipline practices would keep kids
from trying to test the boundaries of a more forgiving system. Unfortunately, little
flexibility and room for administrative judgment calls led to a proliferation
of injustices.
The examples are numerous.
Dontadrian Bruce was suspended from Olive Branch High School in Mississippi for
suspected gang activity based on one photo of him holding up three fingers to
display his football jersey number (Ferrer, 2014). A 13-year-old boy was
arrested in New Mexico for burping in class; this after being previously
accused of selling drugs and “forced to strip to his underwear in front of five
adults” (Cantor, 2011, para. 1). Also in New Mexico, a 7-year-old with autism
“was allegedly handcuffed to a chair after getting upset in class” and another
young girl was arrested for not wanting to “sit by the stinky boy in class” (Cantor,
2011, para. 2). Twelve-year-old, Alexa Gonzalez, was arrested in New York for
drawing on her desk (Chen, 2010). Fourteen-year-old Kyle Thompson was led out
of his Michigan school in handcuffs and is now spending a year under house
arrest, punished for resisting to hand a note over to his teacher (Scholl,
2013). Malcom Calvert was arrested and charged with misdemeanor battery for
playfully hitting his friend in the head with a Tootsie Pop on the school bus
in Florida (Gonzalez, 2013). While the charges against Mr. Calvert were
dropped, an arrest for battery remains on his record.
The U.S. attorney
general, Eric Holder, stated in a report released in January 2014, “A routine
school disciplinary infraction should land a student in the principal’s office,
not a police precinct” (Rich, 2014, para. 9). With the belief that youth are
inherently or merely already bad,
initiatives to scare them straight have instead led to more complications.
