In the last three years, Marcquees Banks has been taken out of class twice for getting into fights.

The third time he got into a scuffle, something different happened: A counselor at Augustus Hawkins High School in Los Angeles pulled Banks and the other teen aside and told them they needed to talk.

The teens became friends and Banks an advocate for his school's new approach to discipline: have students work out their differences with counselors rather than suspend them.

At Los Angeles Unified School District and several other large, urban districts there has been a shift away from zero-tolerance policies that emphasize harsh discipline for even minor misbehavior in favor of support-focused alternatives.

The decline has brought optimism but also questions: If students aren't suspended, how are they being held accountable?

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