Craig Savoye

About the author: Craig Savoye is an instructor of mass communications at Principia College in St. Louis, Missouri. He has worked in journalism, government, business, and public relations, and as a staff writer for the Christian Science Monitor.

Through its gradual implementation of zero tolerance policies on smoking, truancy, dress, hate crimes, drugs, and weapons, Granite City High School in Illinois has proven that such policies can help to prevent school violence. The school prides itself on strictly enforcing its codes of behavior, but administrators admit that the success of their program is in part due to using common sense to judge each case of misbehavior on its own merits. Zero tolerance policies can make schools safer.

Like its name, Granite City High School is unyielding when it comes to zero tolerance...