“The U. S. Customs Agency [initially] developed zero tolerance in the 1980s [in order] to target the booming drug trade” (Martinez, 2009, p. 155). As the decade ended and the 1990s emerged, many people within this country came to believe that all school systems (rural, urban, and suburban) were no longer secure due to the growing influence of drugs and violence. This perception was further reinforced because it was “during this time [period that] the nation witnessed a series of widely publicized school shootings in relatively unfamiliar places [across the United States]” (Triplett, Allen, & Lewis, 2014, p. 353). Because of these horrendous incidents, zero tolerance was created by the Gun-Free Schools Act of 1994 which “was a sweeping attempt to take back control of schools and provide districts with the power to increase social control in order to prevent violence” (Mongan & Walker, 2012, p.