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"A child's life is like a piece of paper on which every person leaves a mark," Paul Deschenes, Amy's father, wrote on his website dedicated to battling the injustice he believed his daughter had suffered. In November 2008, Amy was suspended from George Bush High School in Fort...
Zero-tolerance policies for violent, drug-related or otherwise unacceptable behavior grew out of federal mandates for education-funding in the early 1990s. The horrific slaughter at Columbine High School on April 20, 1999, reinforced the rigid policies. In Texas, according to a state legislative study, some 144,000 students...
"There are a number of kids who need to be there - they do have problems, and we need to focus on them," says Fred Hink, executive director of Texas Zero Tolerance. Hink, citing a Texas senate research paper, says 10% of all the disciplined students are "completely innocent" and that...
"If a kid commits a crime off school grounds, he gets due process," Hink says. "If he commits a crime on school grounds, he doesn't get due process." The harshness of the procedures was evident in testimony to the Texas state legislature. In addition to Amy Deschenes, legislators also...
Prompted in part by the Deschenes case, the new Texas law mandating consideration of mitigating circumstances passed overwhelmingly this spring. The TEA, which sets statewide standards and policies, is welcoming the mandate. "This is a significant step. It gives principals and administrators a tool to say, Give us all the...