A Failure of Imagination - The Initial Shock and (Over)Reactions to COVID - Disjuncture, Mental Health, and Zero-Tolerance Policies

Oct 15, 2026

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An essay examines how COVID-19 disrupted longstanding expectations and produced a disjuncture between prior ways of seeing and a new normal, intensifying panic, fear, and existing tensions. It connects pandemic stress to deteriorating youth mental health, including a rise in suicide attempts in the United States and findings from Paris-based research. It further links school-related fallout—referrals, vandalism, and altercations—to escalating zero-tolerance policies and their punitive, results-oriented logic grounded in the Broken Windows Theory.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryHealthcare

FormatPDF

Pages18

Reading Time45 min

AccessFree to download

The Initial Shock and (Over)Reactions to COVID

Disjuncture and mental health impacts

Suicide attempts and adolescent crisis

School stress and behavioral escalation

Zero-tolerance policies and punitive logic

Broken Windows Theory and social order

A Failure of Imagination W. Jesse Blackstock James Madison University, Graduate Student M.Ed. in Educational Leadership William L. White James Madison University The Initial Shock and (Over)Reactions to COVID On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) classified the coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2 (commonly known as COVID or COVID-19), as a pandemic. In spite of the many worldwide efforts aimed at limiting the spread and effects of the disease, WHO suggests that to date more than 615 million COVID-19 cases and over 6.5 million related deaths, worldwide, have been confirmed. Equally important, the ravages of the pandemic show only few signs of waning. As new variants, each seemingly more transmissible than the previous, emerge, the COVID-19 virus remains a clear and constant threat in many parts of the globe and many aspects of daily life, including education and student conduct. The initial shock and the persistent nature of the virus led not only to existential questioning of relationships and hopes for the future, but also a disharmony between what was once known and what has become the new normal. These tensions, between old and new, are referred to as disjuncture – the conflict that occurs when longstanding ways of seeing, doing, and believing collide with and are super-ceded by unexpected and unimaginable new realities (Jarvis, 2012). In this cauldron of uncertainty, panic and fear exacerbate existing tensions (Agamben, 2020) and lead, in the case of students, to deteriorating mental health that manifests itself in a myriad of ways. One horrific example of the mental health toll that the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has taken is the surge in suicide attempts in the United States and around the world. Indeed, Cousienand his colleagues (2021), in a study based in Paris, France, suggest that “the COVID-19 pandemic is associated with profound changes in the dynamics of suicide attempts among children”([Cousien et. al](Cousien et. al), 2021, p. 4). Within the borders of the United States, the Center of Disease Control (CDC) also charted an unprecedented 31% increase in adolescents admitted to emergency rooms for attempted suicide in 2020. Together, these studies clearly indicate an evolving and complex mental health catastrophe among the world’s youth. While suicide might well be considered the pinnacle of the mental health crisis, social and emotional stress can also be seen in daily interactions and confrontations in schools, on playgrounds, and at social gatherings. As students returned and readjusted to in-person schooling, many school-based professionals underestimated the challenges that schools, teachers, and students would face. Across the country, the peri-and post-pandemic periods have seen increases in student behavior referrals, instances of in-school vandalism, and physical altercations. To counteract these alarming trends, many schools sought to tamp down student misbehavior by implementing policies that are more coercive than restorative. In particular and in spite of ample evidence that suggests their ineffectiveness in changing behaviors and outcomes (Casella, 2003; Miller, 2001; Harcourt & Ludwig, 2006; Ho, A & Cho, W, 2017), there is a marked increase in “zero-tolerance” guidelines that assign high-stakes punitive measures to students, no matter the nature of the offense. These policies are grounded in a form of results-oriented approaches (Pollitt & Bouckaert, 2011) to persistent social ailments that resonate well with white middle-class citizens because they appear efficient, appropriate, and targeted at others. Zero-tolerance policies can be traced to the Broken Window Theory. This concept, introduced by James Wilson and George Kelling (Wilson & Kelling, 1982), responded to lingering frustrations with the drug epidemic that swept the nation in the early 1980s (Skiba, 200) . As Livermore (2008) notes, the theory suggests that broken windows “in high crime areas…are a symbolic com

FAQs

How does the essay describe COVID-19’s impact on students beyond physical health?

It emphasizes a disjuncture created by the pandemic, leading to heightened fear and worsening mental health. It also describes increased anxiety reflected in youth behavior and school-related conflicts.

What evidence does the essay cite for changes in suicide attempts among young people?

It references a Paris-based study suggesting the pandemic is associated with profound changes in the dynamics of suicide attempts among children. It also cites a CDC-reported 31% increase in adolescents admitted to emergency rooms for attempted suicide in 2020.

How does the essay link zero-tolerance school policies to the Broken Windows Theory?

It explains that zero-tolerance practices can be traced to the Broken Windows Theory’s idea of responding to disorder to shape behavior. It further describes how the theory’s logic merges with policies that separate “undesirable persons” from “decent folks.”

Oct 15, 2026

Upload by Liam