REPORT PROVIDES CLUES ABOUT CURBING SCHOOL VIOLENCE, DRUG USE

If Tennessee's zero tolerance law was supposed to reduce violence and drug
activity in the state's schools, it's been a dismal failure.

In just three years, the number of times Tennessee students attacked their
teachers, brought weapons to school or took drugs has increased 10.8
percent.

Since the 1999-2000 school year, zero-tolerance offenses grew from 3,651
incidents to 4,047 last year. Worse, the nearly 11 percent spike in offenses
has occurred while the total school population has barely budged - up 0.68
percent over the same period.

These disturbing figures come from a report issued by the comptroller's
Office of Education Accountability.

"Though zero tolerance policies begin with the good intention of creating
safer schools," the report notes, "it is not always clear that the results
have been successful." The study also observes that zero tolerance policies
"may be falling out of favor among some educators and education
researchers."

With increases like these, it's little wonder the educational community is
having second thoughts. With documented instances of violence and drug use
increasing ten times faster than the school population, parents are bound to
demand some action, and who could blame them?

State education officials attribute at least part of the increase in zero
tolerance incidents to better reporting. While that's probably true, it
doesn't really get us any closer to addressing the violence and drug use the
report documents.

At the risk of a little politically incorrect profiling, the focus for
reducing violence and drug use among Tennessee school students would seem
reasonably clear.

The report shows, for example, that less than 1 percent of all students
attending Tennessee schools actually committed zero tolerance offenses
during the three years examined. That means that most of the problems in
state schools - as in life generally - come from a small minority of the
population.

It follows that if school officials want to reduce violence and drug use,
they should closely monitor these already identified zero tolerance
offenders.

Who are the major offenders? For starters, school officials need to
concentrate their efforts on boys rather than girls. The report indicates
nearly three-quarters of zero-tolerance offenders are male. The report also
found that special education students and black students are violating zero
tolerance policies at a rate much higher than their actual representation in
the school population would otherwise suggest.

For example, although black students are 24 percent of student enrollment
statewide, 37 percent of all zero tolerance violators last year were black.
Similarly, special education students committed nearly 25 percent of all
zero tolerance offenses, but actually represent only about 16 percent of the
total student population. White students, by contrast, make up 72 percent of
student enrollment statewide but account for 60 percent of all zero
tolerance offenses.

The report also finds that students in the 9th grade are three times more
likely to commit a zero tolerance offense than students in other grades.
And, finally, students in the state's largest urban areas are far more
likely to commit zero tolerance offenses than rural students.

Taken together, these statistics point to the need for some counseling and
other appropriate intervention, such as drug counseling targeted to those
groups which have shown themselves to be the overwhelming source of zero
tolerance offenses. While all students need to hear and absorb educational
information about violence and drug use, it's clear from these statistics
that 4th grade girls in rural schools should not be a priority.

While schools continue to be safer, statistically, than the homes students
come from, violence in our schools is a serious problem. National statistics
indicate approximately 20 percent of high school students regularly carry
some sort of weapon on a regular basis. Across the nation, approximately 900
teachers are threatened with bodily harm and nearly 40 teachers are
physically attacked during an average school day. On that same, average day,
2,000 students report being physically assaulted.

We all want safe schools. This report - disturbing as it is - gives
education officials some vital help in accomplishing that worthy goal.