- Safe Schools Act
The Safe Schools Act is an
Ontario bill, implemented in2000 to provide a definitive set of regulations for punishments that must be issued for students. The bill is often referred to as a zero-tolerance policy, however "the presence of mitigating factors in the Act and school board policies precludes it from being strictly defined as a zero tolerance regime". cite paper |title=The Ontario Safe Schools Act: School Discipline and Discrimination |author=Ken Bhattacharjee |publisher=Ontario Human Rights Commission |url=http://www.ohrc.on.ca/english/consultations/safe-schools.shtml |date=2003 |accessdate=2006-07-31 |format=HTML ] Nonetheless, the bill has been criticized for not providing enough flexibility to schools for disciplining students on a case-by-case basis, preferring instead mandatory suspensions for a wide range of behaviour including verbal abuse and physical violence.cite news |title=Editorial: School discipline requires flexibility |publisher:The Toronto Star |date=2006-07-03 |url=http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1151705447209&call_pageid=968256290204&col=968350116795 |accessdate=2006-07-31] A report commissioned by theOntario Human Rights Commission concluded that "there is a strong perception supported by some empirical evidence that the Act and school board policies are having a disproportionate impact on racial minority students, particularly Black students, and students with disabilities."External links and references
: [http://www.ontla.on.ca/documents/StatusofLegOUT/b081_e.htm Bill 81, The Safe Schools Act]
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