![]() ![]() Zero tolerance’s effectiveness has been hotly debated. Ninety-five percent of suspensions are for nonviolent misbehavior, according to federal government figures. With the help of this policy, the number of high school students suspended or expelled during a school year has increased by around 40 percent in the past four decades. The law was originally passed to respond to an increase in gun violence in schools. Zero tolerance stems from the Gun Free Schools Act of 1994, which mandated that schools expel students found with firearms or face losing federal funding. Courtesy of Janet Hightowerīruce’s punishment is a particularly vivid example of what can result when fear of gang activity in schools collides with the contentious policy known as “zero tolerance”-a term describing school rules that favor suspensions and expulsions, even in the case of minor infractions. On February 6, Bruce appeared before a disciplinary hearing officer who decided his fate: “Indefinite suspension with a recommendation of expulsion.” In this photo taken by his mother, Dontadrian Bruce recreates the hand signal that he made in a photo taken by a teacher and which led to his suspension from school. When Hightower arrived at the school, she was shown the picture, and that same day, February 3, Bruce was sent home. If he leaves home and goes two houses down, he’s gonna text me and let me know.” Her son had never been in trouble like that before, she said, and he made As and Bs. When his mother, Janet Hightower, received a call from the school, she was shocked at the news. “I was trying to tell my side, and it was like they didn’t even care,” said Bruce. He also said he had no idea the gesture was known to signal affiliation with the Vice Lords, a Chicago-based gang with a strong presence in Memphis, Tenn., 20 miles north of Olive Branch. As rival African-American clubs sprung up, symbols of wealth became more central to the sharp-dressed crew: top hat (shelter), cane (strength), glove (purity)-and the Playboy bunny, which according to Gangs: A Reference Handbook, Second Edition, “symbolizes the quickness and alertness of gang members.” Though the date of the earliest uses of the bow-tied bunny are unclear, UIC prof John Hagedorn-author of the gang studies People & Folks: Gangs, Crime, and the Underclass in a Rustbelt City and A World of Gangs: Armed Young Men and Gangsta Culture-speculates the symbol has been employed by the Vice Lords since the early 1960s, “probably after the first Playboy Club opened.Bruce explained that he was simply representing the number on his football jersey, “3,” and that all the kids did it in football practice. Back then, the Vice Lords was a neighborhood social and service club, which maintained an office and opened a restaurant and ice-cream parlor called Teen Town. Like Playboy, the street gang traces its roots back to Chicago, starting up in the Lawndale neighborhood in the early 1950s-right around the time Hef was launching his men’s mag. The tuxedo-clad bunny symbol that has been on the cover of every issue of Playboy (more than 670) is also one accepted symbol of the Almighty Vice Lords Nation. Is the Playboy rabbit also a gang sign? I’ve seen graffiti near my neighborhood that looks a lot like the magazine logo.- J., Bridgeport ![]()
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