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Punishment may rise for drugs at school
By BARBARA BEHRENDT, Times Staff Writer INVERNESS -- Faced with a series of gut-wrenching expulsions Tuesday, the School Board decided to get tougher on students caught on campus with illegal drugs. Principals at middle and high schools will be encouraged to give longer expulsions than those set as minimums in the Student Code of Conduct when the incident involves controlled substances that would result in felony charges. Under district rules, principals have some discretion in punishment they mete out for drugs and alcohol. The board reviews those decisions in private and only rarely alters them. On Tuesday, the board voted to expel nine students for violating the zero-tolerance policy on drugs and alcohol. Board members said later that some of those cases involved honors students and students with no prior discipline records. But they also involved some of the more high-profile, dangerous drugs such as OxyContin and cocaine -- substances not frequently found in the Citrus schools. The board also discussed adding language to the Code of Conduct that the felony-level drugs should bring longer expulsions. The members also want the Code of Conduct committee to discuss adding a phrase that makes the intent to distribute or sell drugs or alcohol punishable. Other issues discussed included outlawing paddling of students and adjusting the ban on cell phones, pagers and electronic devices so that possession of the items would not be punishable but using them during school hours could be. The suggested changes will be taken up by the Code of Conduct committee and brought back to the board in April. A public hearing on the Code of Conduct could be set for May. The drug issue prompted the most discussion from the board. "More and more we have students involved in drug use . . . and some of these could be deadly," said board member Patience Nave, who suggested that the board somehow make it clear that some substances are more dangerous than others. The only cases that would get the minimum expulsion are those involving alcohol and marijuana under 20 grams, because everything else is a felony, said School Board attorney Richard "Spike" Fitzpatrick. Board chairwoman Pat Deutschman said it has concerned her that there is no difference in penalties for various outlawed substances. School administrators have historically given out 10-day suspensions for first-time alcohol possessions. Suspensions rather than expulsions have been used for some marijuana cases, board member Sandra "Sam" Himmel noted. She said the policy sets a minimum, but administrators could exceed that if necessary. Deutschman said the public should pay close attention to the discussion because the students who were expelled Tuesday said they had gotten their drugs from home. Some were prescription drugs; others were illegal substances. "Parents need to get a little bit of a wakeup call," Deutschman said. "They need to make sure they have locked them (prescriptions) up from their teenagers and not just from their little children." Board member Carol Snyder raised the issue of corporal punishment, which a resident earlier in the meeting had criticized. "We don't allow violence between children and I don't think that it should be a part of our policy," she said. Removing paddling from the list of acceptable punishments is as easy as getting three votes from the five board members, Fitzpatrick said. "As long as this is in here . . . then our public perceives that we approve of this," Snyder said. "We're saying that kids can't engage in this, but adults can. . . . We've already been accused of being more tolerant of acts by our adults than our students." Snyder said parents who believe in corporal punishment should handle that at home, prompting superintendent David Hickey to ask whether that should be true for acts committed at school. "Absolutely," Snyder said. "When my kids got in trouble at school, you better believe they got in trouble at home." Hickey said he wanted administrators to have their say on the issue. Deutschman agreed that she wanted to hear more before making a decision on paddling. She also said she would like to see a change in the policy prohibiting possession of electronic devices. She said students frequently use tape and CD players on the way to and from school trips, which cuts down on discipline problems on the bus. Many students also have their own cell phones. "I don't think it's an issue of disciplinary action," Deutschman said. "If we're not enforcing (the rule), we shouldn't have it." Snyder said students should be allowed to use their phones but not during school hours. But Hickey said the devices do cause disruptions. Some students don't turn them off and they go off during school time. The devices also may provide a temptation for stealing. "It disrupts a school," he said.
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