SCHOOL DISTRICT FAILS TEST IN USE OF ITS DRUG POLICY

Talk about overreacting. The Hazleton Area School District is poised to use
a bazooka to blow up an anthill, all over a student giving her friend a
Tylenol because she wasn't feeling well.

Imagine - the girl who dispensed the over-the-counter medication that can
be bought at nearly any store might get kicked out school, and permanently,
for this seemingly innocent mistake.

That's because the district has a strict policy about students giving each
other medication, regardless of the circumstances. That goes for anything
from an aspirin to ecstasy. The penalty for such infractions is uniform -
expulsion, after a hearing in front of the school board.

How anyone can take such an obviously overreaching policy seriously is hard
to imagine. Denying a child an education because of such a relatively minor
offense would be a massive injustice, one that prompted the director of a
local substance-abuse treatment agency to speak out.

Ed Pane, executive director of Serento Gardens, compared the situation to
"giving the death penalty for jaywalking." While recognizing that some type
of policy should be in effect regarding such situations, Pane, a former
school director himself, felt the current one must allow for flexibility.

Obviously, the degree of this particular infraction does not compare to a
situation in which a student gives an illegal narcotic to another student.
It would be like giving the same sentence to a person who slaps someone
across the face as one who hits another person over the head with a
sledgehammer.

We could even see the district's perspective if the case in point involved
habitual troublemakers. But both girls involved were honor students with
clean records.

Clearly, the board should be able to see through this situation and make
the appropriate decision. The offenders involved should be warned and
allowed to resume their educations. Expulsion would be plain wrong, and an
abdication of the humanity and sound judgment education officials must display.

The board did not act on the matter following a hearing Tuesday, but the
right thing to do is clear.

District officials should use the matter as a learning experience, and let
the two girls in question back into the classroom.