RALEIGH -- Wake County school leaders are rejecting the strict zero-tolerance student discipline policies that swept across the nation this past decade following deadly school shootings.
In a rare sign of near unanimity, school board members on Tuesday embraced plans by school administrators to overhaul discipline policies that are among the strictest in North Carolina. The goal is to reduce the length and number of student suspensions. Policies will be rewritten so that most offenses will be eligible short suspensions. That will keep students in school, improving academics and the graduation rate.
"It answers a lot of the questions we've had about suspensions," school board Chairman Ron Margiotta said. "It's a long time coming."
Margiotta's words were echoed by board member Keith Sutton, who has frequently clashed with members of the board majority about issues such as abandoning the use of busing for socioeconomic diversity. Tuesday marked the first time in more than three months in which no supporters of the discarded diversity policy were arrested for disrupting a regular board meeting.
"We're moving in the right direction," Sutton said. "It's going to help principals manage discipline issues and will reduce the number of suspensions."
The new rules, which will be finalized for implementation in January, will allow more discretion by principals about the length of suspension. Old policies mandated automatically throwing students out for the rest of the school year for some offenses. In the interim, the board voted 7-1 to give Superintendent Donna Hargens immediate authority to reduce individual suspensions.
The board also unanimously voted Tuesday to change the definition of a long-term suspension to now be anything from 11 days to the rest of the school year. Under the old policy, students slapped with a long-term suspension would be barred from class for the rest of the school year.
Remembering fear
The one cautionary note on Tuesday came from Anne Sherron, a North Raleigh parent who serves on the school board's student assignment committee. Sherron said that the board members should consider the reasons why the policies were made so strict by prior boards.
"They shouldn't just throw them out because it was by the old board," said Sherron, who said she's not supporting or rejecting the changes.
Sherron noted how zero-tolerance policies were put in place after the school shootings across the country, including the 1999 massacre at Columbine High School in Colorado, where two seniors killed 12 students and a teacher before committing suicide. She reminded the board of how scared parents were and how schools implemented lockdown drills to test their security.
But a team of administrators who spent 18 months reviewing discipline issues decided that zero tolerance was no longer the right course for Wake. Last school year, 833 students received long-term suspensions while 19,396 short-term suspensions of 10 days or less were issued.
"We want to do away with zero tolerance or mandatory long-term suspensions unless they're required by law," Hargens said.
The new approach
With the exception of bringing a gun to school or making a bomb threat, Hargens said, no other offenses will always result in a long-term suspension.
She said the new guidelines will discourage principals from issuing long-term suspensions for students who are repeatedly disciplined for "minor" offenses such as failing to comply with staff directions or using inappropriate language.
Instead, Hargens said most offenses would be placed into two groups.
Under the new guidelines, most offenses will be considered short-term suspensions, but principals will be able to recommend a long-term suspension because of aggravating factors. For instance, she said a principal might opt for a long-term suspension for a student who hacks into a school's computer system and puts personal information about classmates online.
Hargens said a few offenses would still be subject to long-term suspensions. But she said principals will have the discretion to issue a shorter suspension based on mitigating factors. For instance, a principal might consider whether a student who distributed drugs had a prior disciplinary record or was forced into the violation by classmates.
"It's a huge shift in the basic approach to discipline," said Ann Majestic, the school board's attorney.
Revival of detention
Hargens said there will be a greater use of alternatives to suspensions. She said officials will look at increasing enrollment in alternative schools and requiring principals to offer disciplinary options such as after-school detention, Saturday school and community service.
Most of the sweeping changes, which will require revising at least 15 policies, won't be implemented until January. But for the next few months, Hargens will be empowered to rule on leniency requests from principals on a case-by-case basis.
Sutton, the board member, said the changes shouldn't be interpreted as going soft on students.
"We're still looking at kids," said Sutton, who used to work for the state Department of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention and is now a victim's assistance liaison with the Governor's Crime Control Commission. "There's always an opportunity for rehabilitation."
