Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, March 22, 1990 TAG: 9004020182
SECTION: NEIGHBORS PAGE: W-8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Charles Stebbins
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Also, should parents be given a say in what punishment is meted out to a student caught violating school rules?
These questions were debated recently by members of the Craig County School Board and several parents.
No clear-cut answers were found, but the discussion may lead to formation of a committee of parents and school personnel to deal with punishment policies.
The discussion was brought on by an incident at Craig County High School recently in which seven students were found to be drinking alcoholic beverages at an athletic event.
As punishment, they were banned from participating in or attending all school activities, except classes, for the remainder of this term. This included several class trips, including one to Canada.
Parents of one of the students complained that the punishment was too severe, especially for a first-time offense.
The underlying issues were whether the punishment should be relaxed and whether parents should have a say in setting the punishment.
Parents say they should, but school officials said it was their responsibility to enforce school policy.
And members of the board were of one voice on the question of relaxing punishment already made public.
Chairwoman Carrie Crawford said it would be "a dire mistake" for the board to lessen a punishment already decided on. She said that to do so would send a message to all students that a first-time offense would bring a light punishment.
Board Vice Chairman Robert Shaver said the School Board has given strong support to several movements to eliminate alcoholic beverages and drugs in the schools. He said it would not be proper to tone down punishment for an alcohol-related offense considering the stand the board has taken on this issue, which is a serious problem in many school systems.
If the board had relaxed the punishment, he said, it would have amounted to overriding administration officials and undermining their authority.
Punishment was decided on by the high school principal, the superintendent of schools and the assistant superintendent of schools, who met for much of one day to consider the incident.
***CORRECTION***
Published correction ran on March 29, 1990.\ Because of a reporter's error, a story in last week's Neighbors about punishment involving seven Craig County High School students who had been caught drinking at an athletic function, left an unclear picture of what took place at the meeting.
Parents of only one student asked that the punishment against that child be relaxed. Members of the School Board supported the principal in the punishment, which was not as extensive as the story indicated. The parents of only that student said they felt they should be involved in fixing punishment, but the principal said he was opposed to this, and the School Board supported the principal. The board did not discuss setting up a committee of school officials and parents to decide punishment in future cases, as had been reported.
Memo: CORRECTION