Marijuana, pills cause expulsions
BY PAM BRANNON Gulf Breeze News news@gulfbreezenews.com

Sometimes it might seem like a lot of Santa Rosa County students are getting expelled these days, mostly for marijuana or prescription drug use, Santa Rosa County School Board administrator Bill Price said.

"But actually, less than 1 percent of our students have been alternatively placed. Last year we expelled just 105 out of almost 26,000 students. That is not a bad average."

Price told a group of county leaders Oct. 17 at the Roundtable for Violence Prevention in Santa Rosa County that the state determines who gets expelled in any Florida school. "They tell us the grounds for expulsion. They also put into place a few years ago the zero tolerance standards for any kind of drug possession or use in the schools," Price said. "Sometimes they even change their standards from year to year, but we have to follow those changes."

He pointed out that on the graph he presented there was a large surge in expulsions during 1999 and year 2000. "That was when the state suddenly determined that pocket knives should be part of the weapons category for expulsions. You and I probably always had a pocket knife on us when we were kids, but the state decided it should be a reason for expulsion - for a while. Then in the 2005-2006 school year the state decided it had made a mistake, and took it off the expulsion list. Students still cannot carry pocket knives to school, but now we are allowed to handle it in different ways or with different disciplines. So of course the expulsions for weapons on the graph made a drastic dip in 2005," Price said.

He said the school district does have the right to determine whether it is an expulsion with services or without services. "Some students are so dangerous that they should not be placed in any school environment, either our alternative day school Learning Academy or even in community adult night school. So those students are expelled without services," Price said.

The county report shows among girls in 8th, 9th, and 10th grades in Santa Rosa County schools the drug of choice is mainly prescription drugs brought from home.

Sheriff Wendell Hall said, "If people would just lock that medicine cabinet in their bathrooms, or take the prescription medications out and put them in a secure place, we could cut at least half of these incidents out. It may not always be your kid who take the drugs, either. It could be a teen visiting your house. But parents do not think about doing it, and we have a rising problem with kids wanting to experiment or look cool."

Price said among 10th, 11th and 12th grade the drug of choice in the county seems to be marijuana.

If students are expelled with services, then they are allowed to attend the alternative school, called The Learning Academy in Milton. Price explained, "It has only 100 students a year and offers four classes. It is a much smaller venue, and some students do better in that," Price said. "He pointed out that Santa Rosa County didn't have any alternative school to offer students when they were expelled until this school came into existence. "About 10 years ago Dr. Bill Rader, who was a professor at that time at UWF, came to the school board and asked if we would be interested in such a school. He works with a group that sets up and builds these schools nationwide," Price explained. "About half the students there are from our expulsions. But the other half are from parents just requesting that their student go there, or a school principal recommending that a student might do better there."

Price said the school gets its funding directly from the state, just like the county's other public schools. "The Santa Rosa School District actually loses money when a student is expelled. The Learning Academy runs off state funding for students just like us, but none of the money comes through the district. It goes directly to the Learning Academy. The advantage to us is that our students are not out on the street and are not losing time in their studies and credits toward graduation."

"When students are expelled, according to state guidelines, they are out of their home school for the remainder of that grading period and one more nine week grading period. Then they can ask their home school principal to let them come back to their school. If they have kept their grades up during the alternative education and stayed out of trouble they usually can come back then," Price explained to the Roundtable group. "We can count on one hand the number of students who ever come back through the expulsion system again. I tell them that this will all be just a story to tell their grandkids one day, as long as they learn their lessons the first time."