SCHOOL BOARD WEIGHS ZERO-TOLERANCE OPTIONS

Officials Question Whether One Program Really Discourages Students'
Drug And Alcohol Use.

INVERNESS - School officials are struggling to measure the success
of a new program that offers a second chance to students who are
caught with drugs or alcohol - an offense that in the past resulted
in an automatic expulsion.

The program gives school administrators several options to deal with
students who violate the district's zero-tolerance rules banning
drugs and alcohol on school campuses.

For example, students caught with marijuana now have the option of
attending the Renaissance Center, where they receive counseling
services as well as instruction. If those students show improvement
in the transition program, they can eventually return to their home school.

The intent is to keep students who made bad choices from falling
behind in school.

In the past, those students would have been expelled from school up
to 18 weeks without any services. Some fell in with the wrong crowd
and never returned to school.

But now the School Board is wrestling with difficult questions,
including whether the program discourages drug and alcohol use among
students and whether to expand the counseling services to other
zero-tolerance offenders, such as students who bring "dangerous
instruments" to school.

For the most part, the program has been successful, said Andy Nott,
a psychologist at the Renaissance Center.

Since the school opened to students with drug and alcohol
violations, eight middle school students have completed the program,
meaning they responded positively to the treatment and returned to
their home school.

Six other students moved into the school's regular program. Students
have the option to stay at the school or return to their home
schools if administrators determine they have shown enough improvement.

But not all students are taking advantage of a second chance.

Even after receiving counseling, some students are failing drug
tests or simply refusing the help.

Nott asked the School Board on Tuesday what to do with those students.

"Boot them out, in my humble opinion," said board member Ginger
Bryant. "They're influencing all the other students that we are
charged with protecting."

Board Chairman Bill Murray agreed.

"If we give them a second chance and they blow it," Murray said,
"they're gone."

Rich Hilgert, the student services director, said the district must
distinguish between habitual drug users and first time offenders who
made a bad choice.

"To just say we're putting a student with a drug addiction in this
program and all of a sudden say that he's going to quit using, in my
opinion, is not going to happen," Hilgert said. "But getting that
counseling and support is very important."

Hilgert noted that families are grateful that the School Board gives
zero-tolerance offenders the opportunity to receive counseling and
remain in school.

Board members, a majority of whom must approve all expulsions,
agreed to decide each case separately.

Another question the School Board tackled: whether to allow students
who are caught with "dangerous instruments" into the program without
an expulsion appearing on their record.

The district's zero tolerance rules call for an automatic expulsion
for any student who brings a weapon or uses a "dangerous instrument"
in a threatening manner. Such an instrument could be a sharp pencil.

Board member Pat Deutschman said she wants the program to
exclusively serve students with alcohol and drug violations.

Other board members agreed that students with violent offenses
should not be allowed into the transition program.

"There does need to be some fear out there," Deutschman said,
referring to students who continue to misbehave and think they have
a "free pass."