ABSTRACT
Certainly, violence and drugs are a concern in our society and a threat to school safety. One of the ways the legal system and, hence, schools have chosen to address this problem is through the use of zero tolerance policies. First instituted in response to problems with drug dealers, federal and state governments later passed zero tolerance laws applying to students possessing drugs and weapons in schools. Some school districts’ policies and procedures expanded this scope to include more trivial offenses (Shouse, 2005).
