FEW STUDENTS LOSING LICENSES

A small number of North Carolina students have lost their driver's
licenses under a law designed to discipline unruly teen-agers.

Statewide, 130 students had their driving privileges revoked through
the "Lose Control, Lose Your License" law during the 2000-01 school
year, according to the N.C. Department of Transportation.

There are 234,953 public school students who have or are eligible to
have a driver's license.

The law, which took effect July 1, 2000, is supposed to revoke the
driver's licenses of teen-agers for up to a year if they are
suspended from school for more than 10 days for certain offenses.
Those offenses are possession or sale of alcohol or a controlled
substance, possession or use of a weapon on school property and
assault on school personnel.

Few licenses revoked

School officials in the Cape Fear region say few students lost their
licenses as a result of the law. There were more revocations through
a dropout prevention law. A breakdown of the figures was not
available.

The dropout law calls for school officials to notify the Department
of Motor Vehicles when students fail to pass 70 percent of their
classes or drop out of school. School systems track students'
progress and determine whether their licenses should be reinstated.

More than 13,700 students have lost their licenses through the
dropout law since Aug. 1, 1998, according to the Department of
Transportation.

Cumberland County school officials notified 103 students last year
that their licenses were being revoked. A majority of the
notifications were dropout prevention revocations, said Carol Hudson,
who oversees the program for the school system.

The system suspended 403 students last year: 129 students were
suspended for drugs, 39 students for possession of a weapon, 74 for
assault, 74 for fighting and 87 for other incidents, according to
school officials.

About 75 Robeson County students lost their licenses last year.
Ronnie Chavis, the driver education director, said few of the
students lost their licenses under the "Lose Control, Lose Your
License" program. Specific numbers were not available.

The paperwork for both laws has caused confusion for school
officials, Chavis said.

"There could be some incidences where students were overlooked," he
said. "We are making sure we are fair to all these kids."

Sampson County schools reported 21 students who lost their licenses
during the first semester of last school year. None of the
revocations fell under the "Lose Control" law, said Tommy Daughtry,
assistant superintendent of student and instructional services.

"Most of the kids have the foresight to abide by the law in order to
keep their licenses," he said. "This does get the kids' attention.
Their licenses are very important to them."

There may have been cases in which students committed one of the
offenses, but were suspended for less than 10 days, Daughtry said.
Also, students who were suspended may not have had their licenses in
the first place, he said.

"It's hard to say whether the law is a deterrent," he said. "Maybe it
is. I don't know."

Officials with the state Department of Public Instruction are
gathering data on the two laws to present to the state Board of
Education in November 2002. The report will look at how the laws
affect the dropout rate and school violence, said Michelle Wallen,
health education/driver education consultant with the state
Department of Public Instruction.

"We are compiling survey questions and drawing statistics from
various departments," she said. "We should have some idea about the
effectiveness of the laws."

Local lawmakers have differing views on how to interpret the low
number of revocations under the "Lose Control" law. Rep. Doug Yongue,
a Democrat from Laurinburg, and Rep. Donald Bonner, a Democrat from
Rowland, are co-chairmen of the Education Committee in the General
Assembly. Yongue said he had expected more students to lose their
licenses.

"Some may be slipping through the cracks," he said. "That is my first
reaction. Apparently, it's not as great of a deterrent as we had
hoped it would be."

The low revocations could be looked at in two ways, Bonner said.

"Students may understand that it is a strict law and they are obeying
it," he said. "Or you could look at it and say that the enforcement
authority is really not enforcing it. I would rather look at it from
the first perspective. I would not be disappointed if the number was
lower."