An Evaluation of the Government Policy "Zero Tolerance for Violence in Polish Schools"

The “Zero Tolerance for Violence in Schools” programme presented by the government is a project of broad social intervention into the field of educational activity and the functioning of Polish schools. The immediate argument for the introduction of this project was the dramatic and tragic event in one of Gdansk secondary schools that took place in 2006. This event was interpreted as a signal and an indicator of the mass threat of peer violence within Polish schools. Due to this reason, the programme has a broad scope, covering all schools and educational institutions. It is difficult, however, to see the grounds for such an interpretation in the existing research and statistics on aggression at schools, whereas the diagnosis presented in the project is not persuasive enough to justify the introduction of this programme.