In September the Irving, Texas, police grabbed a 14-year-old boy from class, slapped some handcuffs on him and interrogated him without an attorney present or notifying his parents. His crime? Making a homemade clock and bringing it to school to show his teachers, who thought it resembled a bomb and decided to call the police. During questioning the boy repeatedly explained that it was a clock but was arrested anyways for making a fake bomb, in addition to being suspended from school.
The boy's name was Ahmed Mohamed and many believe that the overreaction by school officials and the police was a response to the Mohamed's middle-eastern ancestry and Islamic faith. The hashtag #IStandWithAhmed began trending shortly after the incident as supporters fought back against an incident they saw as Islamophobia. President Obama even tweeted his support, inviting Mohamed and his family to the White House.
Mohamed's supporters are right to fight back against a system that has become so absurd that even the most minor offenses (or even non-offenses) can result in suspensions or expulsions that often cripple a student's academic career before it can truly begin. They miss the mark, however, in labeling this a race or religious issue; zero-tolerance policies are equally harmful to all students, regardless of minority status.
Eighth-grader Alan Holmes (white) was suspended last week for wearing a shirt that said, "standing for those who stood for us" and depicted the symbolic war memorial of a soldier's boots, rifle and helmet because it violated a school code banning clothing that promotes violence. Second-grader John Welch (white) was suspended for eating his Pop-Tart into the shape of a gun and making "bang bang" noises. Tenth-grader Da'von Shaw (black) got a five-day suspension for making a presentation on healthy eating that involved chopping an apple using a knife (which he immediately forfeited to his teacher when she requested it). Seventh-graders Khalid Caraballo (black) and Aidan Clark (white) were suspended for a year and recommended for expulsion when they played with airsoft guns (spring loaded toys that fire plastic pellets) at Caraballo's house, which happened to be about 70 yards from the bus stop. Make no mistake, any kid of any race who had the audacity to make a clock and bring it to school would have been treated just as irrationally.
Zero-tolerance policies treat students of all ages, ethnicities and intents as potential mass killers. We all want to do what we can to keep our children safe, but these overboard punishment schemes are so grossly ineffective at doing so that they actually make our schools less safe, not only by traumatizing innocent students like Mohamed but also by incentivizing students (like David Schaffner III, Travis Smith or Jack Persyn, who were all suspended when they took the initiative to turn in knives they unwittingly brought to school) not to report potentially dangerous situations for fear of unjust punishment.