By Ti'Juana Hardwell, a youth leader of Hope Street Youth Development

For nearly an entire school year, youth leaders from Hope Street Youth Development (HSYD) took on the Wichita School District to modify their Zero Tolerance Policy and on July 19 they took home a victory.

Zero Tolerance Policy mandates that any child that hits a teacher will incur a 186 day (one year) suspension from school no matter the circumstance. However, in many cases students in Wichita have witnessed teachers who jump in to break up a fight and are accidentally struck by a student. HSYD leaders felt the policy lacked common sense and needed to be reviewed on a case by case basis.

For example, a year ago a Wichita student was severely beaten in a school bathroom. As she fled the scene, a teacher stopped the student, grabbing her by the shoulder and in shock the student struck the teacher thinking the teacher was the assailant from the bathroom. The student was expelled for 186 days.

On April 27th, members of HSYD organized a public meeting with over 100 people to expose these unfair policies. "I think that students are being deprived of the education they would be getting in school. The student's behavior needs to be disciplined not their education," said Danielle Andrews, a youth leader of Hope Street committed to changing the policy. "It is far too severe of a punishment."

The repercussions of such unfair policies are that students' educational performance suffers and their attitudes stay the same. "By kicking students out of school, school officials are saying when there is a problem or a conflict get rid of it," said Marsha Guest, a student at a Wichita High School. "It turns out the 'it' is the student labeled as the problem child. What happened to conflict resolution and mediation? Addressing the problem instead of hiding from it prevents it from occurring again."

After much pressure from HSYD, school officials in Wichita announced in mid-July the following changes: the mandatory 186 suspension has been thrown out—allowing for less severe punishments when necessary; a cap on suspensions—no student can be expelled for more than two academic semesters rather than the previous three; and students have a right to stay enrolled and have access to their homework throughout the 7-week appeal process.

It is apparent that policy can no longer bully Wichita students. The youth of HSYD identified the problem and persisted in attacking the issue. For them, the fight is not over. They plan to find other alternatives to expulsion and suspension including youth court and conflict resolution.