THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, June 2, 1996 TAG: 9605310247
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 14 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BY NANCY LEWIS, CORRESPONDENT
LENGTH: 201 lines
THE LITTLE WHITE box a friend handed Patrick McQuilkin looked harmless enough.
It rattled softly when jiggled, and the handful of tiny greenish-brown spheres inside didn't look dangerous.
But the box and its contents were to land the 14-year-old Princess Anne Middle School student in a heap of trouble.
Patrick was about to become one of the 149 Virginia Beach students to receive yearlong suspensions this school year for first-time violations of drug policy.
The stringency of the 3-year-old rule is being questioned by the schools' Drug Education Advisory Council. The zero-tolerance policy instituted by former Superintendent Sidney L. Faucette is the toughest in South Hampton Roads.
This is Patrick's story:
In the few seconds it took Patrick to size up the box, his friend had disappeared into the stream of students moving through the hallway. When Patrick lifted the top from the 2-inch-by-4-inch container, it took him a moment to recognize the little ridged orbs as marijuana seeds.
Patrick panicked. His friend had told him to hold on to the box, but Patrick knew better. He rushed to the bathroom and dumped the seeds into the toilet. But a few seeds and stems were still wedged inside the box. As he ran from the bathroom, Patrick briefly considered throwing the box into the trash. But he feared the container might be traced to him.
So he ran back into the hallway and stashed the box in another friend's locker. The friend asked what was inside, and Patrick replied, ``don't worry,'' then rushed off to lunch. But another student had seen Patrick open the box, spied its contents and reported the incident to school authorities.
Patrick's friend tells a different story. He says he'd asked Patrick on the phone the night before if he would plant the seeds near his Pungo home. He claimed Patrick had agreed and knew what was in the box.
Principal Lauralee Grim recommended a year's suspension for both boys. School hearing officer Robert Hicks, following the letter of the school law, upheld the recommendation, as did the School Board's discipline committee. And the School Board rejected a request by Patrick's parents, Chip and Hayden McQuilkin, to overturn the suspension.
Since November, Patrick has been attending Richard Milburn School, a private facility near Mount Trashmore with which the board contracts for the education of suspended students. His class day is four hours long and there are no organized sports. His parents must drive him to and from school.
During the 1994-95 school year, 208 elementary, middle and high school students were suspended for one year for first offenses. Since 1992, when the new policy went into effect, 583 first-time violators have been given the long-term suspensions.
Before 1992, first-time offenders were given five-day suspensions and required attendance at a three-day, school-run drug intervention program. When the system changed its policy, it referred suspended students to public and private assessment and treatment options. A suspended student must complete one of these programs before becoming eligible for readmittance to regular classes.
Hicks said suspended Beach students are ``on their own for education,'' but most choose one of four alternative schools - Richard Milburn, Open Door Campus (with evening classes that allow students to hold daytime jobs), the Center for Effective Learning or the Career Development Center. Some enroll in private schools, and their parents pay tuition.
Figures on how many return to school were not available, though Hicks estimated ``the majority - almost 99 percent.''
Kathy Hall, substance abuse program director for the city's Community Services Board, worries about those who don't. She also serves on the Drug Education Advisory Council. A subcommittee of the council recommended that the full committee support changes in school policy.
The inflexibility of school policy means some students, including ``10- and 12-year-old kids'' who may simply have shown ``bad judgment,'' receive mandatory one-year suspensions, Hall said.
``Alternative education and transportation are usually difficult for parents,'' so kids end up on the streets sometimes. ``Is that the kind of message we want to give them?'' she asked.
Also on the subcommittee that looked into whether the policy is too unyielding is Linda Jacocks, a captain in the Virginia Beach Sheriff's Department and director of the elementary schools' DARE program.
``We proposed a more progressive form'' of discipline that gives administrators flexibility to mete out less severe discipline when circumstances dictate but allows them to deal more harshly with repeat offenders, Jacocks said.
But, she said, the recommendations in no way back off from the zero-tolerance approach to drugs.
``We need consequences,'' Hall explained. ``The zero-tolerance policy is absolutely correct'' in requiring assessment and treatment or counseling in all cases, including possession of drug paraphernalia, ``look-alikes, what have you.'' But long-term suspensions ``need to be looked at. We'd like to see a tailor-made menu of services.''
Hicks, one of two hearing officers who review all cases of long-term suspensions in city schools, said the policy demands that, ``regardless of circumstances, we do not reverse,'' though in cases of seniors their suspensions usually are reconsidered and shortened to the remainder of the school year. But most offenders are in grades eight through 10, he said.
Likewise, ``the School Board's hands are pretty tied,'' when parents appeal, Hicks said.
All cases are referred to police.
Whether the consequences of violating school drug policy have acted as a deterrent is not certain because records from the years before the new policy cannot be found, Hicks said. He said, though, that only three of those who've been suspended for a year have been repeat offenders.
Included in the subcommittee's report are data on punishments by other Virginia school districts.
Repercussions for first-time drug offenses in sampled districts range from five-day, in-school suspensions to 10-day, out-of-school suspensions coupled with referral for assessment and counseling, Hall said.
Chesapeake schools, one of the systems the subcommittee studied, imposes a minimum five-day out-of-school suspension for first offenses and requires assessment and treatment or counseling. Roberta Harrell, who supervises student discipline in Chesapeake, said assessment recommendations range from ``nothing'' to intensive treatment. She works with students for whom counseling is suggested.
Norfolk schools, not among those the subcommittee surveyed, give first-time violators automatic 10-day suspensions and schedule administrative hearings to determine whether long-term - up to 90 days - suspensions are in order. Extenuating circumstances are taken into account. Offenders also must complete a two-week Chemical Abuse Prevention Education Service (CAPES) program run by the city's Community Services Board in conjunction with the school system.
Portsmouth Public Schools' policy calls for a 30-day suspension for a first-time offender in middle or high school. It also requires the suspended student to complete a treatment program. So far this year, 21 students have been suspended for drugs in Portsmouth schools.
Mary Pace, drug education prevention coordinator for Virginia Beach schools, defends the city's long-term suspension policy, saying it is aimed at sending ``a very clear message to students and parents that'' there will be no exceptions.
Before zero tolerance, ``five years ago, a middle school student with a joint, we'd have two courses of action,'' Pace said. They were expulsion or five-day suspension and referral to the drug intervention program for three days, depending upon the seriousness. ``But it was a gray area, nothing definite enough to say expulsion or suspension and drug intervention. We've gotten out of the drug intervention business. Education, yes, but once it happens it was the feeling of Faucette'' that help should be sought outside the school.
Division on the issue of how best to deter drugs in Virginia Beach schools extends beyond those professionals who must deal with it. Parents of suspended students also differ in their reaction.
One mother, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the Virginia Beach school system is keeping to the ``letter of the law, not the spirit'' in not looking at each case individually. Her eighth-grade son, also a Princess Anne Middle School student, had been recommended for indefinite suspension with the possibility of expulsion after school officials searched him and other students on an anonymous tip. They were looking for drugs but found a 2-inch pocket knife in his backpack. Policy requires expulsion in weapons cases.
``He thought he'd lost it,'' his mother said. ``He'd been at a friend's house whittling . . . had asked his Dad two days before if he'd seen it.'' The boy ``lucked out'' on a technicality, said his mother, because school officials had failed to update paperwork required for his attention deficit disorder.
The boy's father is a Virginia Beach public school teacher. His wife understands the importance of keeping weapons out of the schools and worries about her husband's safety.
Another mother, who also asked to remain anonymous, said that she backs the school's zero-tolerance stance despite the fact that her son was suspended for a year when he took a box containing contraband from one student and passed it on to another.
Nearly six months after his son's ordeal began, Chip McQuilkin is still fuming. His anger also stems from what he says was his failed attempt to enlist the school's help in making a point about drugs.
Patrick's younger brother, Ross, while in the sixth grade, had been given a film canister containing marijuana by another student. Ross showed it to Patrick after school, and together the brothers decided to consult their father.
Chip McQuilkin reported the incident to school officials and the police. The investigating police officer told the boys they'd done the right thing, and school officials assured Chip McQuilkin that they would take action. But he says nothing more was done.
``They did a half-hearted investigation and dropped it,'' he said. ``Not even a courtesy call. It was a missed opportunity. I wanted them all brought together'' and taught a lesson. ``That what they don't reveal to us can hurt them - that they should be afraid of it like a snake. But I had to tell the kids, `I guess they don't do anything about marijuana.' ''
Now the McQuilkins must deal with their son's case in juvenile court. And Chip McQuilkin contends that his son is not getting an adequate education at Richard Milburn. He calls the alternative program a ``kangaroo education . . . sanctioned by the city of Virginia Beach to unload'' students.
Patrick's friend, who also is at Richard Milburn, says it's ``too easy - I already learned that stuff.'' ILLUSTRATION: Staff photos by STEVE EARLEY
Patrick McQuilkin was kicked out of Princess Anne Middle School. Now
he and his family, including father Chip, are fighting the school
system's zero-tolerance drug policy.[color cover photo]
Patrick McQuilkin, 14, pictured on Back Bay near his family's home
in Pungo, is one of the 149 Virginia Beach students to receive
yearlong suspensions this school year for first-time violations of
drug policy. The School Board has rejected a request by his parents
to overturn the suspension.
Photo by L. TODD SPENCER
Richard Milburn School is a private facility near Mount Trashmore
with which the board contracts for the education of suspended
students.
KEYWORDS: VIRGINIA BEACH SCHOOLS DRUG POLICY SUSPENSION
PUBLIC SCHOOLS ZERO TOLERANCE DRUG POLICY by CNB