Pubdate: Tue, 26 Aug 2003
Source: Madison Daily Leader (SD)
Copyright: 2003 Madison Daily Leader
Contact:  http://www.zwire.com/news/newslist.cfm?brd=1302
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1003
Author: Aisha A. Talley

MADISON SCHOOL DISTRICT ADOPTS TOUGHER TRAINING RULES POLICY

Students in the Madison Central School District who violate a revised 
alcohol, tobacco and other drugs policy could be barred from participating 
in co-curricular activities for a year.

Monday night, school board members voted 8-1 to pass a tougher general 
training rules policy (policy JFCH). The policy was brought up for review 
in an effort to close loopholes, increase parental involvement and toughen 
the consequences students could face for violating the district's drug policy.

School board member Craig Walker cast the lone dissenting vote.

The policy goes into effect immediately.

"I think we need to make some kind of a statement to the student body that 
this kind of behavior is not going to be tolerated anymore because it's 
affecting our kids and it will affect their future," said school board 
member Rod Goeman.

According to the revised policy, students adjudicated, convicted, the 
subject of a suspended imposition of sentence or self-reporting the 
consumption, possession, distribution or ingestion of controlled substances 
or marijuana or possession or distribution of drug paraphernalia will be 
restricted from participation in extracurricular activities sanctioned by 
the South Dakota High School Activities Association for one year. National 
Honor Society students will be dismissed from the organization.

Any student adjudicated, convicted, the subject of a suspended imposition 
of sentence or self-reporting the consumption, possession, distribution or 
ingestion of alcohol, other substances for the purpose of becoming 
intoxicated or tobacco will be subjected to certain disciplinary consequences.

Those consequences include a ban from participation in 1/8 of the total 
regularly scheduled events for the first offense and a ban for one calendar 
year for a second or subsequent offense.

One or both parents will also have to meet with the coach and activities 
director before a student is reinstated. Violations will accumulate 
beginning with a student's freshman year.

Monday night's decision isn't the first time the board has revised the 
district's training rules policy. The policy has now been revised six times 
in nine years -- each time in an effort to close a loophole.

The latest effort stems from an incident in December in which a Madison 
High School student-athlete was allowed to play on one of the school's 
teams because of a loophole.

In that case, the student was convicted in Clay County for a misdemeanor 
count of ingesting a substance and for reckless driving. Because both state 
statute and the school's policy didn't specifically address ingestion at 
that time, the student was reinstated onto the team.

The new wording is expected to close some of those loopholes to make the 
policy tougher, Superintendent John Sweet told board members. But, he said, 
"every time a new instance occurs, somebody finds a new loophole."

Goeman, who pushed for a tougher training rules policy after the December 
incident, said that the previous policy wasn't fair to students who didn't 
violate it.

"I think we have to weigh the kids that are not breaking the rules with the 
kids that make the decision to violate the rules," he said.
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MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart