DISTRICT 150 WEIGHS DRUG, ALCOHOL PROGRAM

Students Could Avoid Expulsion Through Contract, Taking Drug Tests

PEORIA - District 150 students who get caught with drugs or alcohol
this school year will get a chance to avoid automatic expulsion. The
district is rolling out a drug and alcohol abeyance program that
allows students to stay in school if they agree to a contract that
includes random drug testing and drug counselling and/or treatment.

When kids are caught with drugs at school or during school events,
expulsion is mandatory. And under a new policy the School Board is
considering, expulsion also will be mandatory for possessing alcohol.
Suspension was sometimes used for this offense in the past.

Associate Superintendent Cindy Fischer said the intent of the
abeyance program is to get kids help instead of just removing them
from the system.

"We've had students in tears saying, 'I don't want to be excluded
from school. I'll get help. I'll do whatever,' and we've had a policy
that says 'You're out,'" Fischer said recently at a meeting of a
district parent/teacher advisory committee.

The program works like this: A kid caught with drugs or alcohol
attends an expulsion hearing and is offered the choice to participate
in the program. If the student agrees, both the student and a parent
must sign a one-year contract. If the student violates the contract,
he or she is expelled immediately.

Under the one-year contract, the student must:

- - Attend an assessment by a drug and alcohol treatment provider. The
district will identify acceptable providers.

- - Complete activities recommended by the provider, which could
include counselling, classes or treatment.

- - Pass random drug tests.

- - Follow all school rules.

Families also must agree to cover the cost of the activities
recommended by the provider and the cost of the drug tests.

Students who are charged with the intent to sell or distribute drugs
or alcohol are not eligible for the program.

About 40 District 150 students were expelled last year for possessing
drugs or alcohol, although the district estimates that 15 percent of
its students have a serious substance problem.

Statistics show that kids who use illegal substances are getting
younger. From 1992 to 2001, juvenile arrests for drugs increased 121
percent, while adult arrests for drugs grew only by 33 percent,
according to data given at the meeting.

Jan Bogle, a district official who helped create the abeyance
program, said this data is sobering because the younger the child,
the greater the chance for addiction as an adult.

"We are losing a whole generation of youth to drugs and alcohol. It
is a silent killer," said Bogle, adopt-a-school manager.

District 150 looked at a similar abeyance program at East Peoria
Community High School when creating its own.

The contract is basically the same, but East Peoria only offers the
program to first-time offenders. District 150 will give kids two
chances for abeyance in middle school and two chances for abeyance in
high school.

"We think it's a valuable program. It gives a student another
opportunity if they really want to get their act together," East
Peoria Superintendent Cliff Cobert said.

He added that the program isn't 100 percent successful.

"For a person who's really addicted, it's going to be very difficult
for them to change their habits," Cobert said.

Fischer will present the abeyance program to the board at its Aug. 21
meeting. It doesn't need approval, but Fischer is seeking general consensus.