Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, September 30, 1995 TAG: 9509300018
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: FROM STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
Schools should not seek fines against parents who refuse to sign a statement agreeing to help schools discipline their children, Attorney General Jim Gilmore said Friday.
Gilmore commented after his office sent a letter to William C. Bosher Jr., state superintendent of public instruction, saying that schools should stop asking parents to sign under threat of a fine.
``The way that it is being applied suggests to parents they must surrender some constitutional rights and be subject to some liability,'' Gilmore said during an appearance in Radford.
Gilmore said it's possible that problems can be dealt with administratively rather than changing the law.
``We do think it's important to empower schools,'' he said. ``I have some trouble with the application of a fine.''
In a letter to Bosher, Deputy Attorney General William H. Hurd said schools should ask parents to sign a statement that they have received copies of the school's code of conduct and the state Parental Responsibility and Involvement Act. Schools also should explicitly state that parents do not waive any rights by signing.
``It is not an enforceable legal agreement,'' Hurd said. The use of the word ``contract'' created too much confusion and mistrust, he added.
The law requires parents to sign a statement at the beginning of the school year agreeing to help the school in discipline problems. Parents can be fined $50 if they don't sign the statement and $500 if they refuse to meet with school officials if needed to discuss their children's discipline problems.
Opponents of the law said the measures recommended by Hurd might remove some of the objections of parents but that the law, with its threat of fines, remains flawed.
``You can put all the disclaimers on it that this does not violate the right of free speech, but that doesn't change the law,'' said Kent Willis, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia. The ACLU has asked schools not to enforce the contract while it is challenged in federal court.
In addition to putting the contracts on hold, Hurd recommended that schools assure parents who already have signed that they have not waived any rights.
Two weeks ago, the Rutherford Institute, a nonprofit organization that specializes in religious freedom cases, filed suit in U.S. District Court in Roanoke on behalf of Thomas and Deloras Whitt. The Roanoke County couple refused to sign the form and challenged the law as unconstitutional violations of freedom of speech and religion and the right of due process.
County school officials said this week that until the suit is settled, they won't fine parents who don't sign.
"Most of our forms have already come in," Assistant Superintendent James Gallion said Friday. "So it's not that big of a deal with us."
Jim Sellers, assistant superintendent for Montgomery County schools, said he met with principals Thursday to discuss what to do.
He asked them to report the number of parents who did not return the forms, to find out ``what sort of parental reaction we had, just for my own information,'' he said.
Sellers said that at some schools, all parents had signed. The administration planned to see how the controversy played out before pressuring parents.
Roanoke County parent Debbie Hostetter said she was relieved to hear Gilmore's decision.
``I never did sign that paper,'' she said. ``I figured I was going to sit on it until I heard what happened with the [Whitt] lawsuit.''
Hostetter, who has a daughter in first grade at Glenvar Elementary, said she could understand sending the form home to those few parents who don't participate in their children's education. But for most parents, she said, it was an unnecessary invasion of privacy.
The ACLU's Willis said he will continue plans to bring another lawsuit challenging the law as unconstitutional unless there is a clear signal from Gov. George Allen's administration or the General Assembly that the law will be changed.
``The state's goal is admirable in motivating parents to participate more fully in the discipline of their children,'' Willis said, ``but punishing parents won't do that.''
by CNB