Members consider loosening the zero tolerance provision on drugs and alcohol for middle school students, but they choose not to do so.
By BARBARA BEHRENDT
Published February 25, 2004
INVERNESS - While they know expelling middle school students creates special problems, School Board members said Tuesday that they are not ready to loosen the zero tolerance rules on drugs and alcohol for those young students.
The board also stopped short of banning images of Confederate flags, making the carrying of a pocketknife an offense punishable by mandatory expulsion or weakening other zero tolerance penalties for students who distribute drugs or alcohol in school.
Tuesday's workshop was the first chance the board has had this year to examine the issues raised by students and administrators as officials prepare the formal discipline code for 2004-05. The Student Code of Conduct sets out what behavior is unacceptable and what penalties are assigned to violators.
Although a large percentage of students expelled this year have been from middle schools, board members said they did not want to see the rules weakened for those students who bring alcohol and drugs onto school campuses and into school events.
Those offenses now can result in suspension or expulsion, depending on the circumstances.
"Middle school expulsions are problematic," board member Pat Deutschman said. "They're too young to be left at home unsupervised."
The board has planned to talk about finding an alternative program, possibly through the Renaissance Center, which would be an option to expulsion, she said.
Just because more students are breaking the rules at an earlier age, board member Patience Nave said, "seems to me that we should be more firm . . . not more lax."
Board attorney Richard Fitzpatrick said that principals work through the first-time offenses by sometimes giving suspensions rather than expulsions and that those cases would never come before the School Board. By not changing the zero tolerance provision, the board would ensure that it would hear the cases and make the final decisions.
"If you do this (make the change), you cannot be assured that you will see all these kinds of cases," Fitzpatrick said.
Changing the rule would negate one of the reasons zero tolerance was devised: to make punishments more consistent across the district, Deutschman said.
She said she didn't want middle schools excluded from zero tolerance, but she did want to see other alternatives to expulsion discussed. The board placed that topic on a workshop agenda.
The board also debated the "hot potato" issue with drugs and alcohol in schools - a situation in which one student brings the item and hands it off to another who hands it to another. A question has been raised about whether each student should get the same punishment.
Those who distribute a substance now face a longer expulsion than those who possess it. Those who distribute a substance and are compensated face stronger penalties.
Breaking the levels of offense down further would be difficult, Fitzpatrick said, and the board did not push for any specific changes in those rules.
The definition of what is a weapon and what is a dangerous instrument generated debate as well.
Weapons bring a mandatory expulsion, but dangerous instruments, while not allowed, can be cause for expulsion - but don't have to be.
Fitzpatrick suggested that pocketknives could fall under dangerous instrument and that straight-bladed knives could fit under the definition of weapons.
Board member Lou Miele objected, saying he didn't want to see the differentiation. A pocketknife could cause injury just as a straight-handled knife could, and it could be pulled out in a moment of anger whether it was brought to school to do harm or not.
"A knife is a knife is a knife," Miele said.
Nave asked whether pocketknives were just a cultural part of the region. Fitzpatrick pulled out his pocketknife as the board was discussing the issue, and he said people in this region were probably more likely to carry the items than people from the North.
"That's fine, but this is school," Miele countered.
Board Chairwoman Ginger Bryant told him that the change would still mean students can't bring pocketknives. "It's not allowed in school, Lou," she said.
Nave, Bryant and board member Sandra "Sam" Himmel said they could live with a change that would list pocketknives as dangerous instruments.
Another topic that generated discussion by the board centered around language in the code of conduct banning clothing that carries unacceptable messages such as those related to drugs, alcohol, violence or messages of a racial or offensive variety. Deutschman suggested adding images as well as messages and expanding the definition to give principals more leeway in stopping disruptive attire.
Questions have been raised recently about T-shirts pushing "Southern Pride" and depicting Confederate flags. The symbol is considered by some to be offensive. But board members said they were concerned about outright banning the symbol.
"You could be offended by everything," Nave said. She said she is offended by things but that she sees that as part of living in a world where offensive things can be seen.
Himmel said she was concerned about many other offensive messages seen on students' shirts. "I don't know where we stop," she said.
Fitzpatrick pointed out the portion of the dress code that allows the principal to decide if attire is disruptive, and it covers several circumstances. "This language allows a principal to decide . . . it's a catch-all," he said. To outright ban a symbol, whether it be the Confederate flag or something else, would require the district to show a continuing history of problems caused, he said.
