THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, February 15, 1997 TAG: 9702140065
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Larry Maddry
LENGTH: 99 lines
SUPPOSE YOU were a 12-year-old standing at a bus stop waiting to board a school bus and found a sandwich bag on the ground containing five marijuana seeds? What would you with it?
Jaime Driggers, a student at Landstown Elementary School, found himself in that situation a few weeks ago.
He knew the seeds were marijuana seeds and wanted to take them to the nearest person in authority.
So he gave the bag containing the seeds to his teacher.
Here's what happened next:
His mother, Shayne Driggers, was phoned at her place of work by the assistant principal and told that her child was going to be suspended from school for a year.
She was told to pick up Jaime immediately. Greatly concerned, Driggers hurried to the school to pick up her son.
His mother says she has always told her son - who was familiar with marijuana seeds because his sister is enrolled in an anti-drug education program - to give any drugs he might find to a policeman or someone in authority.
``I asked the school principal, Ms. Barco, what Jaime should have done with the seeds,'' Driggers said, ``and she said he should have either kicked the bag to the side or taken them home.''
Embarrassed, the boy left school with his mother after receiving a letter informing her that he was suspended from school ``for possession of marijuana seeds.''
Driggers made arrangements for her son to stay with his grandmother while she was at work.
About four days later, Jaime's mother received a letter from Dr. Timothy R. Jenney, the Virginia Beach superintendent of schools.
The form letter informed her that her son was being readmitted to school but noted that he had nevertheless ``committed a serious offense which deserves tough punishment.''
After receiving the letter, Driggers, in an interview with Mary Kay Mallonee of WTKR-TV, complained of a school policy that punishes students for reporting drugs to teachers.
Jonathan Harnden, the director of Student Leadership - whose office handles student discipline matters - was also interviewed. He conceded that the letter sent earlier should not have contained the phrase ``serious offense.'' Jenney later mailed the student a letter saying the school system needed more students like him, his mother says.
Is the ``zero tolerance'' policy for drugs established by the Virginia Beach School Board teaching students to simply walk away from drugs and never report anything to teachers?
That's Driggers' view.
``My son thought he was doing the right thing,'' she said. ``When he was readmitted to school, the principal told him that turning in the marijuana seeds was a good thing but not to do it again.''
Huh?
Crazy as that sounds, it was probably good advice.
Citywide school regulations state that in the event a student is found possessing marijuana, the school principal is to refer the student's case to the office of Student Leadership with the recommendation that the student be suspended for one year. (With expulsion for the second offense.)
But a principal may ask for a waiver of the automatic suspension so the case can be investigated. That's what Jaime's principal did.
The investigation took three days, and no one had any more information about the case then than the youth had provided when he handed the sandwich bag to the teacher.
Harnden, the director of Student Leadership, conceded that the investigation into the case took ``too long.'' However, he said the school is proud of its zero-tolerance policy, which - after all - is for the protection of students.
By phone, he conceded that the School Board may want to change present policy to make allowances for the differences in elementary and secondary schools. ``We have a committee of this office, chaired by Rosemary Wilson, a School Board member. That's one of the things we're going to look at,'' he said.
There's a good idea.
But a larger problem is involved, in the view of Anne T. Jeffords of Virginia Beach. She has given me a copy of her letter mailed to Robert F. Hagans, the chairman of the School Board. Jeffords has been a teacher for most of her adult life and has a master's degree in school administration.
She writes: ``Policy seems to be the name of the game. The action taken was `policy.' If this is `policy,' then the policy should be changed. Jaime Driggers did not deserve this treatment. A school policy that punishes students for doing what is right is bad policy. . . . Here one was punished. If the principal of an elementary school cannot be trusted to use good judgment in a case like this, he or she should not be a principal.
``Virginia Beach has in place a policy which proclaims to all that its principals cannot be trusted to evaluate a situation and take appropriate action. What Virginia Beach needs are principals who are empowered, not principals who are bound by rigid policies that punish children for doing what they should do - turn in contraband they find to someone in authority.''
Makes sense to me. ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photo]
L. TODD SPENCER
Jaime Diggers, here at home with his mother, Shayne Driggers, was
suspended after turning in marijuana seeds he had found.
KEYWORDS: VIRGINIA BEACH SCHOOLS DRUGS ILLEGAL