On The Front Lines
Documentary Channel to Air Award-Winning ‘War on Kids’ Documentary Featuring John W. Whitehead on Sunday, May 6, 8 PM EST
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — On Sunday, May 6, 2012, at 8 pm EST, the Documentary Channel will air The War on Kids, a documentary directed by Cevin Soling which examines the increasingly authoritarian nature of the public schools and their long-term impact on young people. The documentary features an interview with constitutional attorney John W. Whitehead, who has been a vocal critic of overreaching school zero tolerance policies—one-size-fits-all disciplinary procedures that mandate suspension or expulsion for students who violate the rules, regardless of the student’s intent or the nature of the violation. The Rutherford Institute has come to the defense of hundreds of students who have run afoul of school zero tolerance policies. Most recently, Institute attorneys asked the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the case of a 14-year-old honor student who was suspended for shooting plastic “spitwads” while at school.
“For the millions of students attending elementary and secondary public schools, their time in school will be marked by overreaching zero tolerance policies, heightened security and surveillance and a greater emphasis on conformity and behavior-controlling drugs—all either aimed at or resulting in the destruction of privacy and freedom,” said John W. Whitehead, president of The Rutherford Institute. “As The War on Kids shows, the moment young people walk into school, they find themselves under constant surveillance: they are photographed, fingerprinted, scanned, x-rayed, sniffed and snooped on. Between metal detectors at the entrances, drug-sniffing dogs in the hallways and surveillance cameras in the classrooms and elsewhere, America's schools have come to resemble prison-like complexes.”
Named the best educational documentary by the New York International Independent Film and Video Festival, The War on Kids is a 2009 documentary film about the American school system. The film takes a look at public school education in America and concludes that schools are not only failing to educate, but are increasingly authoritarian institutions more akin to prisons that are eroding the foundations of American democracy. The documentary features interviews with schoolchildren, high school teachers, administrators, prison security guards, renowned educators and authors, including attorney John Whitehead.
As Whitehead points out, under the guise of protecting and controlling young people, school officials have adopted draconian zero tolerance policies, which punish all offenses severely, no matter how minor. School systems began adopting these tough codes after Congress passed the 1994 Gun-Free Schools Act, which required a one-year expulsion for any child bringing a firearm or bomb to school. Zero tolerance rules in many states also cover fighting, drug or alcohol use and gang activity, as well as relatively minor offenses such as possessing over-the-counter medications and disrespect of authority. Nearly all American public schools have zero tolerance policies for firearms or other “weapons,” and most have such policies for drugs and alcohol. In the wake of the Columbine school shootings, legislators and school boards further tightened their zero tolerance policies, creating what some critics call a national intolerance for childish behavior. In some jurisdictions, carrying cough drops, wearing black lipstick or dying your hair blue are expellable offenses. The Rutherford Institute is regularly called on to defend students dealt excessive punishments for violating unreasonable zero tolerance policies.
