Pill incident has board explaining code of student conduct
BY PAM BRANNON Gulf Breeze News news@gulfbreezenews.com

Last month a Navarre High student grabbed some pills from the home medicine cabinet and brought them to school. The student then started passing out the pills at school. One of the girls who was handed a pill, along with three of her friends while they were standing in a group visiting, took the pill and threw it away and went to class.

But that act of having the pill in her hand for that few minutes has landed the girl in the county's Learning Academy, being expelled from her high school for a full year.

At least that was the scenario outlined by the student's family to the Santa Rosa County School Board at last week's regular monthly meeting. At the end of recounting the scenario, the student's family asked the Board to consider allowing the girl back into her regular high school at the beginning of the next school year, instead of leaving her at the Learning Academy for a year. They also suggested that the Board might want to review its Code of Conduct for students in these kind of cases.

Usually sometime during their monthly board meeting the District's Supt. John Rogers reads a list of students to be expelled from all the county's various schools for various reasons. Those students are recommended to be sent to the district's alternative education program - the Learning Academy - for a year. Then the board votes in approval, and they get on with business.

But this family's appeal sparked a lengthy discussion, after the student's family left the meeting, between board members and administration staff with questions about how the Code of Conduct is being enforced. They also discussed how early termination from the Learning Academy is being handled, and if any of that policy should be changed or reviewed for fine tuning, at least.

A member of the student's family told the Board, "She made a mistake, according to your Code of Conduct. I thought she had done the right thing by throwing the pill away, but we were told according to the Code she was supposed to go get an adult right away and show them the pill and tell them where she got it. At age 14, how many students would do that? How many would do that and have any hope of returning to school without a target on their back?" He said they were told later that it could be handled without anyone knowing she was the one who had turned the pill in and she could be left out of the spotlight, but she did not know that at the time.

The student's representative said the girl was very honest about the whole thing when approached, and that is what got her here. "You can ask any of the administration at her home school. She is always a very honest person. She is missing sports, her grades have suffered, and all the teachers at the Learning Academy keep asking why she is there. We just ask you to allow her back into her own school at the beginning of next year, so she can continue with her regular class schedule and her softball program, which is the love of her life.

When the family left the meeting school board member Ed Gray II of Gulf Breeze asked the district's administration if they could review the way the district is handling early termination from the Learning Academy. "We look these kids and their families in the eye, and things like tonight tear our hearts out. And we promise them that if they work hard and keep their grades up, even at the Learning Academy that they can return early to their home school. But from everything I've seen, aren't we only allowing a couple times a year for students to come back to their home schools? Are we being honest with these students of we are only allowing early termination of the expulsion at the end of each semester, no matter how hard they work or what the situation?"

He suggested that some students, like perhaps the one appealing at that meeting, should have the opportunity to go back to their home schools earlier if they show consistent progress.

Bill Price, the administrator in charge of handling expulsions, explained that currently they leave students at the Learning Academy until a semester break because the transition between classes mid-term would be too difficult for the students and adversely affect their grades. Price said 50 percent of students sent to the Learning Academy come back to their home school early, instead of spending a whole year.

Gray suggested perhaps they should take a look at the Code of Conduct, with perhaps some students getting the opportunity to return to their home school earlier under certain circumstances. Gray also suggested beginning to use the schools' ITV programs to educate students on exactly what the prescription drug policy for the district includes. "We used the ITV program a few years ago to explain the dress code policies and exactly what we expected and why," Gray said. "I think we are getting more and more of these prescription drug possessions coming before us, with kids bringing stuff from their home medicine cabinets. I think it is time to get an ITV program going - SOON - to explain about not even having a pill in your hand at school and what our policy is."

Supt. Rogers said maybe it is time to do some ITV education on prescription drug possession and the rules surrounding it, and perhaps the staff should just review its codes for misconduct to make sure they are clear, especially in handling prescription drug possession.

This month there were seven students district wide expelled from their home schools for issues ranging from possession and/or use of marijuana on school property to being under the influence of alcohol to possession of prescription drugs without a prescription. None of those students were from Gulf Breeze.