A state lawmaker from Fairfax County is creating a task force to probe Virginia’s discipline policy in the wake of a local student’s suicide. Del. Kaye Kory, D-Fairfax, called the state’s guidelines for K-12 discipline policy “not entirely clear and concise, and sometimes contradictory, not to mention there are parts I don’t agree with.”
“Because it is hard to penetrate exactly what the code requires and where it allows flexibility to local systems, frankly it has been easy for school systems to simply say, ‘The states make us do this,’ ” Kory said. “It’s easy for them.”
Kory is meeting with members of Family Foundation, Voices for Children, Fairfax Zero Tolerance Reform and fellow state delegates, with the goal of creating legislation for next year’s General Assembly.
Members of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors suggested that the county school system re-examine its disciplinary policies after football player Nick Stuban, 15, committed suicide. He was removed from W.T. Woodson High School and transferred away from friends after he admitted buying one capsule of synthetic marijuana.
“While it is only speculation that he was distraught over his experience with the [Fairfax County Public Schools] disciplinary process and his subsequent expulsion, we will never know why the young man took his own life,” said Cathy Hudgins, D-Hunter Mill. “This is not the first time that a FCPS disciplinary action has been associated with the loss of life by a student.”
Hudgins’ remark incensed Superintendent Jack Dale, who wrote that the link drawn between the expulsion and the suicide was “unconscionable and a blow to those who have already suffered great pain and loss.”
But since the dustup, several school board members have voiced support for revising their procedures.
“Clearly, it is time for a review of FCPS discipline policies and practices for fairness and effectiveness,” Patty Reed wrote in a letter to Providence District parents.
Fairfax County’s rules are based on state law; the code regarding drug use reads, “School boards shall expel from school attendance any student whom such school board has determined, in accordance with the procedures set forth in this article, to have brought a controlled substance, imitation controlled substance, or marijuana … onto school property or to a school-sponsored activity.”
However, a board may consider “special circumstances” in which “another disciplinary action is appropriate.”
Maryland school officials also are reviewing local disciplinary policies in the wake of the case. “They wanted to review local school system policies to make certain that such a situation does not happen in Maryland,” said state board spokesman Bill Reinhard.
