The Janesville Eight
Janesville schools expel eight
Janesville Schools wrapped up its 2004-2005 school expulsions with a whopping eight expulsions in a single session. Even with this strong finish the school system fell short of its expulsion record of 50 set last year.
Five of the expulsions were for possession of marijuana. The terms of expulsion ranged from a couple of months for a middle schooler up to a permanent expulsion with no chance of reinstatement for a high school student. Quite the range there.
The headline expulsion was for striking a teacher. The teacher was struck while trying to break up a fight between two students. The teacher was not injured and the blow was not intentional. The student was expelled for two years with no possibility of returning earlier.
In addition there was:
–A middle school student, accused of repeatedly refusing or neglecting to obey school rules, expelled through the first semester of the coming school year.
…
–A high school student, accused of possessing a knife with a blade 3.75 inches long on school grounds, expelled through his or her 21st birthday with no possibility of reinstatement.
Permanent expulsion with no chance of rehabilitation for possession of marijuana or a pocket knife. What does it say about our schools when their punishments are more severe than the criminal justice system’s?
Contact Information:
Superintendent Dr.Thomas Evert
It’s sad how public school students rarely encounter justice from either end while in school. Because of lilly-livered administrators, minor disciplinary infractions that nontheless require consequences go all but unnoticed, but when kids violate a ZT policy, they encounter truly draconian responses.
Kids have a hard time moderating behavior to begin with (especially when they are of the “hormonally challenged” age), but when school systems set a bi-polar example in how they respond to disciplinary infractions, how can we expect kids to be anything but nuts?
The people on the school board should be removed from office (and hopefully tarred and feathered).
E-Mail won’t work with these peaple, ZI needs to start getting their mailing addresses and posting those as well as email.
The terms of expulsion ranged from a couple of months for a middle schooler up to a permanent expulsion with no chance of reinstatement for a high school student. Quite the range there.
It is hardly fair to protest 1) when a school expels a student permanently with no discretion, and also 2) when it exercises discretion by assigning different punishments. If the terms of expulsion were not proportional to the gravity of the particular drug-possession offense, say so, but if you don’t know one way or the other, don’t snark at them.
And since, rightly or wrongly, pot possession is a federal crime punishable by years in prison, what was the school supposed to do with the offenders, kiss them? This teaches what about respect for law and the need to change dumb laws rather than conspire against them?
As for Shadowe’s suggestion, I wish I were confident that he means the official school address, not their home addresses. At any rate, I hope you take it that way.
The missing information here? Were the students chronic problems? Were these just the last in a long list of issues faced by the school and given lesser punishments up until this point?
I also think there is a confusing syntactical point in this. Expulsions usually deal with permanently barring students from school. WHen students are given other diciplanary time away from school, most places call it “suspension” — not “expulsion”.
Kids who fight tend to recieve disiplinary time off from school — that isn’t unusual. (I’m assuming that the kid who struck the teacher was one of the students involved in the fight, not someone trying to help stop the fight.) Kids who bring knives with blades almost four inches long get expelled. (Sorry, that’s just not the same thing as bringing a butterknife or a plastic knife. I assume — I know that’s dangerous — but I’ll assume that the blade is metal and sharp.) Kids who smoke pot get arrested and put in jail, so suspension should be the least of their worries. Chronic misbehavior (where one can assume previous disciplinary measures failed) often leads to suspension and expulsion.
Would you want you child to attend a school where kids are allowed to carry knives, smoke pot, disobey rules and hit teachers? Punishment does not automatically equal zero tolerance!
I wonder how you would feel if the 3 inch knife had been brandished about and your child saw it or was directly involved? Would it make a difference to you how LONG the knife was? Many times I read about unthinking administrators and agree, but weapons are a problem. Weapons of all kinds can kill.
IF the knife had been brandished then that would have been a consideration for punishment. Just like it would be a problem IF somebody used a vehicle to threaten my child but it is still not a punishable offense to drive one.