Pubdate: Oct 15, 1998 Source: Santa Barbara News-Press (CA) Contact: http://www.sbcoast.com/news-server/sbnphome.html Copyright: 1998 Santa Barbara News-Press Author: Camilla Cohee SCHOOL EXPULSIONS CONVULSIVE FOR STUDENTS, FAMILIES Drugs, weapons and fights at school campuses usually result in only one thing: a student's expulsion. Frequently, that is followed by regrets. Both by the students and their families. Once students are expelled, their lives are never the same, the experts say.``Kids don't really think about it,'' said Santa Barbara schools Superintendent Michael Caston. ``But when they get expelled, it takes them out of school, away from friends. It affects their whole family." Hearings are held. Statements are made. Parents often plead for leniency for their children. Tears are shed. Reputations are forged that sometimes can follow students forever.``It's really wrenching to watch these families go through this,'' Caston said. But many did go through it locally last year. County junior, middle and high schools released data in recent days on the number of expulsions handed down last year. Expulsions in the high schools rose from last year, mostly due to tough ``zero-tolerance'' policies on drugs and violence. The numbers dropped slightly at junior high and middle schools. Taking a longer view, the total number of expulsions throughout the county have steadily increased over the past six years - from 94 in 1992 to 202 last year. School safety is a constant concern of parents, teachers, students and others. The expulsion statistics tell a little about the situation - although the best gauge is still a visit, or several, to your children's campus - but they don't often tell the ``human'' side of the story. The expulsion process is usually most traumatic for the students themselves, educators said. After a principal recommends expulsion, a committee of administrators examines the case and decides whether to recommend the expulsion to the school board. During that time, about 30 days, the student is tutored at home. When the school board expels students, they are usually sent to El Puente Community School, the local continuation high school. Parents and students can appeal the decision to the county's school board. Students are expelled from the district for at least one semester, but no more than two. After that, they can return to the district, but not to the same school campus from which they were expelled. Exceptions are made for districts with only one high school. The expulsion remains on the students' record, and can affect their ability to participate in some school programs, such as athletics. Santa Barbara school board President Fred Rifkin said handing out expulsions is one of the most difficult aspects of his job.``It's very difficult to sit in judgment of these kids,'' he said. ``You look at the kid and their parents, and each has his own story and different background. Some come from homes with no fathers, or where the parents aren't around because they're working." The school board is particularly sensitive to those cases involving junior high students.``They're really too young to go to El Puente,'' Rifkin said, ``so we take them on a case-by-case basis. We'll give them homeschooling, and the opportunity to go to anger-management classes or to provide community service." ``With some of these kids you just look at them and say `This is an opportunity to turn your life around. What are you going to do?' Some of them break down and cry,'' Rifkin said. One Santa Barbara mother whose son was expelled two years ago for fighting said the ordeal caused him to drop out of high school. The mother, who asked that her name not be used in order to protect her family's privacy, said the expulsion created tension for the entire family.``The first problem was facing the reality that he couldn't go back to that same school,'' she said. ``His friends were there. Also traumatic was trying to find another school, and trying to get him to go there." Her son was devastated, and eventually dropped out after learning that he could not participate in the two sports he loved - baseball and football - at the new high school. Not long after moving out and getting a job, her son realized he wanted to earn a degree. He has since moved back home and is finishing up his last year of school. The mother believes that the experience, as tough as it was, has made her son stronger.``He's more mature. He handles his anger better. He walks away from fights,'' she said. ``He's learning to accept and obey the rules." WHY THEY WERE EXPELLED In the Santa Barbara secondary schools, total expulsions rose from 32 in 1996-97 to 41 last year. Most were cases of students brandishing knives, selling or using marijuana or alcohol, and getting into serious fights. Students were most often expelled at La Cumbre Middle School and Santa Barbara High SchooL.A.t Carpinteria High School, there were two students expelled for carrying knives. One student at Carpinteria Middle School was expelled for throwing a football at a teacher's head. There were no expulsions for hate crimes, or for firearms, on South Coast secondary school campuses last year. There were six students expelled for bringing guns to school in the North County secondary schools. In the Santa Barbara district, there were 11 expulsions of students caught with dangerous objects, in most cases, knives. Several others were expelled for possessing explosives, such as cherry bombs. One La Colina Junior High student was expelled for possessing an imitation firearm.``It was a play gun, but it looked real,'' said Superintendent Michael Caston. Last year the Santa Barbara school board expelled 21 students who were caught a second time using, selling or being under the influence of drugs or alcohol. On the first offense, students usually receive family counseling and are ordered to attend teen court and do community service. Students who are caught with weapons of any kind, or caught selling drugs, are immediately expelled. So are students who commit acts of what school officials describe as ``extreme violence." ``If there is anything that we will not hesitate to do expulsions on it's violence,'' Caston said. ``And if you catch a student with a knife that has a blade more than three inches long, the principal has no choice, they must recommend expulsion." - --- Checked-by: Rolf Ernst