Pubdate: Wed, 30 Jan 2002
Source: News Herald (FL)
Copyright: 2002 The News Herald
Contact:  http://www.newsherald.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1018
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/youth.htm (Youth)

TOLERANCE FOR EXPULSION

DRUGS: Approach Wins Public Favor.

Most parents probably know their child well enough to also know that 
if school administrators weigh the evidence of infraction against the 
evidence for parental pride and understanding, their child obviously 
does not deserve to be lumped in with all the rest.

In hypothetical circumstances we say, "If he breaks the rules, he 
should be punished just like anyone else." But, in truth we know he 
is not just like anyone else, and should not be blindly punished just 
like anyone else, and any school administrator with an ounce of 
common sense would act accordingly.

Hence, Bay District Schools' zero-tolerance drugs policy is not zero 
tolerance. For most first offenders, principals indeed weigh the 
evidence of infraction against evidence of otherwise center-stage 
virtues. Before expulsion, School Board members can open yet another 
escape hatch. They seldom do, however, and Bay District in recent 
years has achieved a reputation for being 
close-enough-to-zero-tolerance tough.

Apparently the reputation is deserved. Compared to the1998-99 school 
year, 2000-2001 saw three times as many drug-related, and nine times 
as many weapons-related expulsions.

As Emily Cramer noted in her Jan. 27 report, "Zero-tolerance policy 
can hit students hard," parents get hit hard, too. Suddenly their 
expectations for their child face the unexpected hurdle of an 
alternative public education that some parents consider inferior, and 
for academically ambitious students, probably is. The potentially 
costly school-record blot can resurface in scholarship, college and 
job applications. Expulsion is the beginning of problems, not the end.

To our knowledge, none of the aggrieved parents' children were 
expelled for having an aspirin tin in their purse or a sharpened 
pencil in their pocket. Although one principal told Cramer the 
get-tough approach is an effective deterrent to drug use, that is his 
assumption. Certainly it seems an effective deterrent to 
once-widespread public criticism that drug use was out of hand in Bay 
County schools, and that is no small reward.
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