Pubdate: Sat, 11 May 2013
Source: Washington Examiner (DC)
Copyright: 2013 Washington Examiner
Contact:  http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3788
Author: Rachel Baye

FAIRFAX COUNTY SCHOOL LEADERS CONSIDER SCALING BACK DISCIPLINE POLICY

A student in a Fairfax County public school caught for the first time
with marijuana would not be automatically expelled, under a new
disciplinary policy the school board is scheduled to consider Monday.

The current policy recommends expelling a student caught for the first
time with marijuana or synthetic marijuana unless school leaders
decide, after a hearing, that another punishment would be more
appropriate.

The new policy for the fall, being recommended by schools staff, would
give a first-time offender up to 10 days' suspension, including five
days at an "Alcohol and Other Drug Intervention Seminar" and 30 days'
suspension from extracurricular activities.

The recommendations are part of an answer to "whether or not we were
in alignment with community values over the consequences for certain
actions," explained Kim Dockery, assistant superintendent for special
services.

Before a student is suspended for 10 days or more or expelled for
repeat offenses, the new policy would require principals to "make
reasonable efforts to notify the student's parents as soon as possible
as part of the ongoing process, unless there is immediate danger to
the student or others, or the possibility of the loss or destruction
of physical evidence."

The changes are part of an annual review of the school system's
disciplinary policy. However, these two aspects of the policy -- when
parents should be notified and the appropriate punishment for a
first-time offender -- are specifically being examined after coming
under fire since 15-year-old Nick Stuban killed himself.

Nick, a football player at W.T. Woodson High School, committed suicide
in January 2011, after being suspended for buying synthetic marijuana
and then transferred to Fairfax High School. He wasn't the first. In
2009, 17-year-old Josh Anderson, a football player at South Lakes High
School in Reston expelled for marijuana possession, committed suicide
the night before a disciplinary hearing.

The recommendations that schools staff plan to present on Monday don't
go as far in protecting students as those offered by a committee
formed to study the issue, Dockery admitted.

For example, the committee recommended notifying parents earlier than
school system staff think is advisable.

"When you start working and you have a situation, then you have to
figure out what that situation is," Dockery said.

Parents ought to be notified immediately when a student faces
disciplinary action to prevent a student from incriminating himself,
said Tina Hone, a former Fairfax County school board member who
started the group Coalition of the Silence to advocate on the issue.

Second chances also should not be reserved for students found with
drugs, she said, but for any student doing something wrong for the
first time.

"It's important that we remember that schools are schools and not
pipelines to prison," she said.
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