Pinellas County Juvenile Justice Council: Special Committee on Zero Tolerance

WED 1 DEC O4 MINUTES

The second meeting of the PCJJC special committee on “Zero Tolerance” policy was held at the Pinellas Park Public Library conference room. The meeting was convened at 5:05 p.m. by committee chair Rev. Bruce Wright, a faith-community member of the Pinellas Juvenile Justice Council. The JJC Parliamentarian, John Feeney was appointed to record minutes of this meeting as was the case in the first meeting held two weeks earlier. Present at the 1 Dec. meeting were the following: Rev. Bruce Wright (Committee Chair); Cathy Corry (DJJ Circuit 6 Partnership Coordinator);John Feeney (JJC Parliamentarian); JJC members Bonnie McClelland, Ashley Mercer, Dave Plyer, Dennis Segall, Matt Sullivan, and Mike White; also present were Elaine Miller, an interested parent and Libby Lubin, representing the Juvenile Division of the Pinellas County Public Defenders Office.

Bruce Wright began discussion in this meeting by reviewing the highlights of the first meeting of this committee on 17 November which focused primarily on the results of two peer-reviewed and nationally recognized law center studies that reached conclusions that were very critical of Zero Tolerance policy and its application. Rev. Wright also highlighted again the resolution against Zero Tolerance put forward by the American Bar Association. [Please see the minutes of 17 Nov. committee meeting]

Rev. Wright then expressed concern & disappointment, uniformly echoed by all others on the committee, that representatives of the school board or school system present at the November 18^th JJC meeting made claims and assertions that were critical of the conclusions reached at the first meeting of the Z.T. committee yet none of these felt it necessary to attend or send a designee to this committee meeting, for which advance public notice had been provided. [Please continue next page]

The rest of the meeting was largely an interactive “open discussion” which culminated in the development of specific recommendations to be incorporated into the Strategic Plan to be submitted to the Department of Juvenile Justice and other authorities, by the Pinellas County Juvenile Justice Council.

John Feeney was asked to craft these recommendations into “language” for use in the strategic plan and agreed to do so prior to 16 December. This language would then be reviewed by the members of the committee before being submitted as our final recommendations. Libby Lubin from the Public Defenders office offered to do research into the costs of the Zero Tolerance policy to the taxpayer that might serve as evidentiary support for our recommendations and come back to the committee with this information.

In summary, the recommendations made by the committee include the following:

1. Divert budgets spent on “guidance counselors” to employ behavior specialists.

2. Limit the use of law enforcement as a means of discipline in public schools; restore public schools to use of “in-house” discipline via school administration rather than reliance upon School Resource Officers [hereafter referred to as S.R.O.’s]

3. Develop less intimidating law enforcement presence – cultivate an “Officer Friendly” type image for S.R.O’s & other on-campus L.E.O’s – for example, civilian clothing rather than uniforms and no weapons/sidearms on campus.

4. If the Z.T. policy is to be retained – define very specifically the perameters of its application.

5. Limit the discretion of L.E.O’s to use their authority on campus, especially in non-violent situations.

6. Develop & require de-escalation and C.I.T. (Crisis Intervention) training for S.R.O’s

7. Develop Student Government application of student peer-review within schools.

The meeting was adjourned at 6:30 p.m.

Minutes Prepared: John Feeney PCJJC Parliamentarian 7 Dec 04