MIXED MESSAGE: NO GAINS SEEN IN NEW DRUG POLICY

Lamentably, the Portsmouth School Board has gained very little ground
with its revised policy for handling drug and alcohol offenses committed
by students.

On the one hand, the policy has become stricter - and, indeed, fairer -
with the board deciding students will be expelled for one year from the
date of their second offense.

On the other hand, the board has ended up softening its stance with the
way it now determines what exactly constitutes a second offense.

Under the old policy, students committing two offenses were expelled for
the remainder of the school year.

No doubt, this has resulted in disparities among students who were
punished. Those caught early in the school year would serve expulsions
over much longer periods of time than students who offended at the end
of the school year.

What the board's new policy does better is accomplish parity in
punishment.

However, the board's decision to wipe clean a student's record of
behavior after one year will result in a drug and alcohol policy that's
been seriously watered down.

Under the old policy, expulsion was possible after a student's second
offense - period. Now students can offend once a year without ever being
sentenced to a one-year expulsion.

The board's good judgment to make punishment more equitable has been
attenuated by its decision to grant a clean slate so easily.

Board members have said that if student records can be expunged after
one year, it would give the district more flexibility in handling
offenders.

The reasoning has to do with going easier on students who have had no
record of substance violations over their entire academic career until,
perhaps, their last year of school.

A second offense should be a second offense, no matter when it happens.
Period. The district is giving students who abuse alcohol and drugs more
opportunities to make mistakes.

What the board has decided doesn't look very much at all like
flexibility.

Rather, it looks like students are being sent a mixed message by a board
that has softened in its stand against substance abuse.