Pubdate: Thu, 21 Aug 2014
Source: Seattle Times (WA)
Copyright: 2014 The Seattle Times Company
Contact:  http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/409
Author: Nicholas O'Connell
Note: Nicholas O'Connell is a Bishop Blanchet parent in Seattle and
founder of The Writer's Workshop.

HELP STUDENTS UNDERSTAND POT LAW

AT Bishop Blanchet High School's annual spirit celebration Brave Day
in May, the school administration kicked out 11 students and
disciplined many more. The students were expelled or asked to withdraw
for allegedly using edible marijuana, according to parents.

For many of these students at this private Seattle Catholic high
school, it was their first offense of any kind.

The school's policy on alcohol and drug use is that students who
possess or use either at school will be put on emergency removal and
might be expelled. Selling alcohol or drugs results in immediate expulsion.

Based on my reading of the handbook, the school principal Sheila Kries
should have called for a full disciplinary hearing, even though the
school says the handbook was followed.

The school administration chose to follow a one-strike-and-you're-out
policy without alerting parents, causing widespread anger among the
school community.

The administration received more than 40 letters from concerned
parents over this Brave Day debacle, but it has tried to cover up the
incident and hope it goes away.

It will not go away. With the new marijuana law recently taking effect
in Washington, school administrators at Blanchet and elsewhere will
have to navigate the uncharted waters of more easily available marijuana.

I'm a parent at Bishop Blanchet. Earlier this year, school
administrators asked one of my sons to withdraw under similar
circumstances and he did.

Rather than simply kicking kids out of school for possessing or using
pot, school administrators need to help guide kids through the
complexities of the new law and culture. School officials need to
address how to deal with readily available marijuana and why kids, who
have still-developing brains, should avoid it.

This is a time of great confusion in our state regarding drug use -
marijuana, a substance recently illegal, now has become legal for
adults, although it is still illegal for anyone under 21.

Even the Seattle city attorney, Pete Holmes, who should have known
better, bought some pot and made the ill-considered decision to bring
it to his office at City Hall, an action he later apologized for. If
the city attorney can make such a mistake, it's no wonder that kids
can make dumb choices.

Rather than helping students understand the implications of the new
law, the Blanchet administration has refused to talk about the Brave
Day debacle or the one-strike policy. At a meeting called in response
to parental concerns, the administration refused to address why the
kids were expelled. "We're not discussing the past," said Dean Sean
Gaskill. "We're here to talk about the future." This was said even
though the whole reason for the meeting was to address the events of
Brave Day.

In a meeting I attended, Principal Kries claimed that the school
handbook required her to expel students who broke the rules and used
marijuana. But the student handbook also makes clear that the
administration has considerable discretion in the application of these
rules.

Many of the Blanchet students kicked out on Brave Day were labeled as
drug distributors for sharing edible marijuana with a friend. They
were banned from the campus as a threat to student safety. They were
not allowed to attend a remembrance service for Molly Conley, a
Blanchet student killed last year, and a friend of several of the kids
expelled.

The administration's harsh zero-tolerance policy leaves no provision
for mercy and no opportunity to provide care and correction for
teenagers on the cusp of adulthood.

The Blanchet administration's one-strike expulsion policy is exactly
the wrong way to deal with the new reality of marijuana in the state.
School administrators at Blanchet and elsewhere need to guide and
educate students about the new laws, using care and appropriate
discipline to help them safely navigate these new and turbulent
waters. If they don't, they will alienate students, parents, alumni
and the larger community, and might eventually have no students left
to teach.  
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MAP posted-by: Jo-D