How many chances do you give a drug dealer? None? One? Two? What if they are only in 9th grade? What if they only sold to one person? What if they have a supportive family that promise to help them change? Should you kick them out of school? Should you lock them up? Should you just believe that they are young and they can change? What message will your discipline send to their friends and other who contemplate the same offense?
Tonight I am angry. I am mad. I am frustrated. At this moment I feel that we are fighting a losing battle that is doomed to get worse and we are helpless to make change. Tonight we took two students before the School Board who both were selling drugs to their peers. Two kids with the same offenses but with very different situations... or are they?
Before the holidays a young man walked into my colleagues office and said, Tio has drugs in his pocket today. He followed the statement with, "how much is the reward from the police department? My colleague was already late for a meeting so I agreed to search Tio. When I brought him into my office he immediately confessed he had drugs and handed to me from his pocket. He stated that he had gotten it for a friend. I also noticed he had $75 in his wallet. I looked up at him and asked, "How long have you been selling drugs on campus"? He replied. "Only a couple days." Now under California law selling drugs is against the law and ground for an expulsion. He was cited by the police department and we began the paper trail for the expulsion hearing.
Two doors down from my office another colleague had just gotten information that Stewart had a strong odor of marijuana. She had escorted him to the office and after searching found pot hidden in his shoe. When she asked him where he got it, after changing his story a number of times he finally said, "I found it on the way to school." (Yeah Right!) While they were discussing the issue, his phone buzzed with a text message from a couple of non students asking if he would walk over to the fence and sell them the drugs. He too was informed that he was suspended pending an expulsion hearing.
Tonight was the big night, both boys had to face the music and testify to the School Board for their actions. Now to most folks these case are no brainers... give them the boot! But to the good folks to sit on the School Board, know they must carefully navigate this insanity we call a legal system and arrive at a decision that is not only good for the student, but the safety of the school as well as legally compliant.
For the most part I have agreed with the current Board's decisions as I understand they are extremely limited in their jurisdiction. For instance, the most a kid can be expelled is for only one year. Then... the district must provide an alternative placement such as a county school that has transportation to and from the site which happens to be about 30 miles from our city. And, in California there is always a stipulation that the kid must get some sort of counseling (we really like the rehab stuff here) then reappear to the Board at the end of the term for a re admittance hearing.
Typically this means that if a kid is expelled, he is out of school for about a month pending the hearing... during that time the school is responsible for providing homework for Little Johnny Delinquent. If he/she is expelled, it is usually for only one semester and often the expulsion is suspended so basically the kid only misses a month of school while he/she is allowed to do all their make up work. Now granted the kid is told that if they have any additional infractions the expulsion will be back in effect. This process creates a "revolving door" for those who are repeat offenders. Many times school officials do not recommend disciplinary issues for expulsion, because there is simply no teeth involved.
In some states when kids are expelled the only option they have is to return to a continuation school, but not here. In as little as one month a drug dealer can return to a comprehensive school campus to covertly resume their source of income. This was the case with both Tio and Stewart tonight. Although our Board attempted to instruct the parents that they could not return to our school, Stewart's family kept pressing the issue and now plan to return to our school at the end of the year. What has happened to our society? I sit and shake my head in wonder of the absolute nonsense that we are forced to tolerate.
I am dedicated to my battle field, but I must admit it is quite demoralizing when you are shooting with rubber bullets.
