TOLERANCE FOR EXPULSION

DRUGS: Approach Wins Public Favor.

Most parents probably know their child well enough to also know that
if school administrators weigh the evidence of infraction against the
evidence for parental pride and understanding, their child obviously
does not deserve to be lumped in with all the rest.

In hypothetical circumstances we say, "If he breaks the rules, he
should be punished just like anyone else." But, in truth we know he
is not just like anyone else, and should not be blindly punished just
like anyone else, and any school administrator with an ounce of
common sense would act accordingly.

Hence, Bay District Schools' zero-tolerance drugs policy is not zero
tolerance. For most first offenders, principals indeed weigh the
evidence of infraction against evidence of otherwise center-stage
virtues. Before expulsion, School Board members can open yet another
escape hatch. They seldom do, however, and Bay District in recent
years has achieved a reputation for being
close-enough-to-zero-tolerance tough.

Apparently the reputation is deserved. Compared to the1998-99 school
year, 2000-2001 saw three times as many drug-related, and nine times
as many weapons-related expulsions.

As Emily Cramer noted in her Jan. 27 report, "Zero-tolerance policy
can hit students hard," parents get hit hard, too. Suddenly their
expectations for their child face the unexpected hurdle of an
alternative public education that some parents consider inferior, and
for academically ambitious students, probably is. The potentially
costly school-record blot can resurface in scholarship, college and
job applications. Expulsion is the beginning of problems, not the end.

To our knowledge, none of the aggrieved parents' children were
expelled for having an aspirin tin in their purse or a sharpened
pencil in their pocket. Although one principal told Cramer the
get-tough approach is an effective deterrent to drug use, that is his
assumption. Certainly it seems an effective deterrent to
once-widespread public criticism that drug use was out of hand in Bay
County schools, and that is no small reward.