[SchoolMatters] Daily Progress Editorial 6/20/06: School policy complicated

[Brian Wheeler]

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
This message is not an official communication of the Albemarle County School
Board. It is a private, e-mail-only newsletter written by Brian Wheeler,
At-Large Member of the Albemarle County School Board. 
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

School policy complicated
Daily Progress EDITORIAL
 
Tuesday, June 20, 2006


When it comes to school discipline, this newspaper often has said that
offenses that would be criminal if they occurred off campus usually should
be treated that way.

Now school officials in Albemarle County are dealing with a corollary issue:
whether criminal offenses - or alleged offenses - that occur off campus
should be treated as school discipline.

That question arose following a teen drinking party that may have
contributed to the death of a young man in an auto crash. A second drinking
party, after Western Albemarle High School's prom, was raided not much more
than a week later.

In the past, many schools chose to deal even with serious offenses, such as
theft, drugs or assault, as internal discipline matters; sometimes they
didn't deal with them at all. That ran the danger of signaling to students
that the offenses were not taken seriously enough. The cumulative result
included problems such as the escalation of bullying, with incidents so
cruel that the General Assembly had to get involved by defining the crime
and telling school systems how to address it.

Serious offenses at school, such as assaults, should be turned over to
police.

Should serious offenses not at school be turned over for school discipline?

Some parents were outraged that Albemarle High School would not punish the
students charged for allegedly violating alcohol laws at a private party.
The county's discipline policy does not offer that option, county officials
said.

Recently the School Board discussed what more could be done by schools to
prevent recurrences of the party allegedly involving the AHS students and
another one just days later for which Western Albemarle students were
charged. Educating students about the dangers of drinking seemed to be the
most popular proposal.

One board member astutely pointed out a double standard in the county's
policy: Athletes may be punished by the school for using alcohol or drugs
during the sports season, but other students are not subject to penalties.
Vice Chairwoman Pam Moynihan suggested that the policy should be consistent
- "all or nothing."

She's right.

Traditionally, such policies were based on the notion that alcohol and drugs
interfere with athletic performance.

But don't they interfere with academic performance? Of course they do. If
illegal substance use is punishable for one reason, it ought to be
punishable for both. Otherwise schools send the signal that athletics are
more important than academics - a message already unfortunately conveyed in
too many situations.

One of the problems with school discipline policies is the fairness of
enforcement, and that would only worsen if schools were asked to punish more
students for such infractions as alcohol use.

The fundamental question is: Is it fair for schools to punish behavior that
did not occur on campus and did not directly damage the school or its
academic function?

There are good arguments for separating the two functions, criminal versus
disciplinarian, and letting each system handle what it was best designed to
handle. For instance, school officials' ability to investigate off-campus
behavior is limited, and officials' ability to set fair punishments
therefore is also limited.

Remember, calls for punishment of the AHS students came even before it had
been proved in court that they were guilty as charged.

If a criminal offense is to trigger additional school punishment, schools
must base such action on an actual criminal conviction. That must be a
minimum standard. Indeed, it is the obvious one.

______________________________________________
If you wish to be removed from this mailing list, just send me a message and
I will immediately unsubscribe you.  To view the archive of past
SchoolMatters messages, visit:
<http://listserv.bnsi.net/pipermail/schoolmatters/>
http://listserv.bnsi.net/pipermail/schoolmatters/
 
If someone forwarded you this message, you may visit this web page to
subscribe:  <http://listserv.bnsi.net/mailman/listinfo/schoolmatters>
http://listserv.bnsi.net/mailman/listinfo/schoolmatters
 
Brian Wheeler
 <mailto:bwheeler at albemarlematters.com> bwheeler at albemarlematters.com
 <http://www.wheeleronboard.com/> http://www.wheeleronboard.com
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://listserv.bnsi.net/pipermail/schoolmatters/attachments/20060620/add97352/attachment.html