Schools almost never have that power, but zero-tolerance policies typically mean that police officers are brought in to deal with almost any situation. Once police officers are handling what ought to be simple disciplinary action, it's easy for a student to get charged with something like assaulting a teacher, and then it's almost certain that social services will be involved, and they can take kids away from their parents.
This whole process could be triggered by a small child throwing a pencil, and if none of the bureaucrats speak up on behalf of common sense, things can quickly escalate until there are serious investigations into whether the child needs to be removed from the home.
>Once police officers are handling what ought to be simple disciplinary action, it's easy for a student to get charged with something like assaulting a teacher
Certainly in the UK more kids assault teachers than get arrested for it; far more than get charged.
If the kid does something that looks to the law like assault to their teacher then what do you think is proper punishment? "Don't do that again!"?
When a kid does violently assault a teacher then this strikes me as more than sufficient cause to investigate the child's home-life and upbringing to ensure they're not themselves subject to similar abuse.
This whole process could be triggered by a small child throwing a pencil, and if none of the bureaucrats speak up on behalf of common sense, things can quickly escalate until there are serious investigations into whether the child needs to be removed from the home.