The Santa Rosa County School District’s zero-tolerance policy concerning drugs covers even past possession or usage on school property.

That’s what at least one Gulf Breeze student recently learned when they were expelled for admitting past possession of marijuana on school grounds.

Connie Carnley, the district’s Director of Middle Schools, explained that zero-tolerance does mean anytime – now or in the past – that a student possesses any kind of drugs on a school campus breaks School Board policy.

“If you admit to having ever been in possession of drugs on any of our campuses, or if there are enough witnesses or evidence that any time in the past you have been in possession of drugs on campus, that breaks the zero-tolerance policy,” she said. “That means at one time you did break the policy code, so you have to face the consequences.

“We would never take the word of one student as a witness. But if there are more than one saying a student had purchased, possessed or used drugs on campus sometime in the past, even if that student does not freely admit it, they can be expelled after an investigation if there is enough evidence.”

Four Gulf Breeze Middle School students and one Gulf Breeze High student were expelled officially at last week’s School Board meeting. All expelled for possession of marijuana on campus. They were also among a total of 17 students expelled last week – including one student from Navarre High on possession of marijuana, and 12 other students from north-end schools expelled for violations ranging from marijuana possession to consistent misconduct, as well as one student at Milton High for possession of a firearm on campus.

Even though all expelled students’ identities are kept confidential from the public and media, during last week’s School Board meeting one set of parents of a student from Gulf Breeze Middle asked to address the School Board without identifying themselves or their child by name. The district’s policy is that any student expelled must spend two consecutive marking periods of nine weeks each off campus in some alternative instruction program.

The parents asked if there was any way to complete the expulsion over the summer and have their eighth-grade son start ninth grade — high school — in August with his class.

“Our son made a terrible mistake,” the student’s mother said. “The dean and the principal were as surprised as we were when he admitted to purchasing marijuana in the past. They said he was never on their radar at all; no one knew he would even experiment with such a thing. But when some other students who were caught pointed to him as one student who had purchased marijuana at school one time in the past, and he was brought in and asked, he was honest. Now he is expelled.”

The parents said their son is already at the alternative school offered by the district to finish out the last nine weeks of this school year.

“But they are telling us that he could have to stay there a whole year, or that if he does everything he is supposed to, he could go back to his school at the end of another nine weeks,” the mother said.

“He has never been in any trouble before. He had so many letters at his hearing from church people, talking about how he volunteers at the church, from neighbors and friends saying he is a good kid and a good student. It was a stupid mistake. Is there any program he can do or anything we can do that would allow him to start the next school year in the ninth grade with his class in August?”

Superintendent Tim Wyrosdick said this is a complicated situation.

“When a student is moving from eighth grade to ninth grade and gets expelled the last nine weeks, it adds complexity to the transition,” he said. “In fact, this is such a problem we are exploring some options right now to try to find a solution that would be fair to everyone that might allow students in this situation to complete some program during the summer that might fulfill the expulsion terms and still have the students be able to start high school with their regular class.”

Wyrosdick hopes to take a recommendation for some compromise options to the Board by the end of the summer.

Carnley is helping to investigate those alternative options.

“It is complicated, and I do not really know if we can get it done by the end of the summer,” she said. “It would have to be something fair to all. Some would say, ‘Why only do it for the last nine weeks of the year? Why not offer the same option all year?’ Some would argue, ‘Why only do it for eighthgraders or for high school seniors?’

“Seniors who get expelled the last nine weeks cannot walk with their class during high school graduation ceremonies — 12 years of hard work down the drain.”