Expelled GBHS student shares ordeal
BY PAM BRANNON Gulf Breeze News news@gulfbreezenews.com

The last three months have been the most scary and stressful of Gulf Breeze High freshman Arica Kuaile's life, she says. That's what made her develop a program she hopes to bring into the high school to try to help other students.

Kuaile said when she gave into what she refers to as "heavy peer pressure" the morning of April 23 she knew she shouldn't have taken a couple pills from her mom's prescription bottle of Xanax. And she said she knew she shouldn't take them to school. But, she said she had absolutely no idea that taking those two pills to give free to another person who had been asking for them would get her expelled from school, or that it could be considered a felony crime in Florida.

Kuaile and her family had been going through some unusual situations at home. Kuaile and her mother had both been prescribed medication - her Mom's prescription was for Xanax. She said when she mentioned at school one day that she was taking a medication to calm nerves, a girl asked if she knew anyone that took Xanax. When Kuaile said "my mom," she said the pressure started for several days from that girl for Kuaile to "bring her a couple pills". One morning, while getting ready for school, she decided to grab a couple pills so the girl would stop pressuring.

But on the way to school, Kuaile said, she got scared about taking the pills into the school building. She was afraid of "getting into trouble." But, her idea of getting in trouble would have meant being called to the principal's office, maybe some detention or suspension, and having them call her Mom.

She said she saw a boy on the school bus that she knew had "gotten into trouble" the week before for having and/or smoking marijuana at school, so she said she asked him if he would take the pills and get rid of them for her. He was still in school after the marijuana incident, so Kuaile said she never thought two Xanax pills would be "that big a deal."

The boy said sure. She said she felt nervous, but better. That is, until a deputy arrived at her classroom door a short time after school and took her to the Dean's office.

"I knew it had to be because of those pills," she said.

She said she was so scared and just wanted to call her mom, but was told the dean would call her mom - which he did, about five or six hours later, her Mom says the official reports show. In the meantime, the deputy and dean were investigating.

Kuaile found out that the boy she gave the pills to on the bus had thought it would be funny to place them in a drink of his buddy's. When the buddy saw little pills floating in his drink, he got very nervous and told school officials. His parents were called and got him to the hospital to make sure he had not taken anything that could hurt him. That's when the pill trail led immediately back to Kuaile.

Arica said that day in the dean's office was scary, first being asked right away to write a statement, then being handcuffed a few hours later when she tried to text message her mom. Then she was told she was being expelled from school, so go clean out her locker. Her mother immediately looked up the school rules, including the Student Code of Conduct the school officials were referencing.

"That Code is 72 pages long," she said. But she was confused herself, she said, when she saw that the code called for a 10-day suspension for possession or distribution, with a hearing during that time to decide if the student should be expelled.

"She was basically expelled that day, without a hearing, and the hearing we did have was not within the first 10 days. So we didn't know what was happening," she said. "Here is a 3.0 grade student, who had never been in any legal trouble, being expelled on the spot. I could not believe it."

Kuaile's mom said at the hearing she showed the board the Florida Statute 893.149 they list in their code of conduct, saying it is unlawful for any person to "knowingly or intentionally" possess a "listed chemical with intent to unlawfully manufacture controlled substance." And it is a felony. If a student is found guilty of something that would be a felony for an adult, they would be expelled automatically. Neither Kuaile nor her mother had any idea that Xanax was on such a list, and she pointed out that her daughter was not going to "manufacture" anything, and not going to sell it, or even take a pill herself.

At first they were told Arica would have to go before judge with criminal charges, but shortly after the hearing with the suspension board they received a call saying she would not be going to court. They told her she could be placed in a special diversion counseling program called IDDS - and the counselor checks on her twice a week.

"But even though she was not going before a judge she was still expelled," her Mom said. "They did not even listen at the hearing, but I thought 'OK, I will go to the school board for appeal'. I did - twice - and found out they didn't want to hear from us either. The decision had been made basically at the school that day before I even knew it."

She was told to start school this year at the Learning Academy, the alternative education center for expelled students. But Kuaile's mom went to tour the Academy and says she will not send Kuaile there. She said she has since discovered that any student sent to the Learning Academy does have the option of doing a Virtual School online, with a teacher and assignments and online help from the teacher.

"It isn't publicized, but it is an option", she said. So that is what Kuaile will do when school starts. "We just want to get her back into her regular classrooms at Gulf Breeze as soon as we can," her mother said. "They said we might be able to get her back sometime this semester. Then she will take steps to implement her new program to help other students not have to go through what she has gone through."