Attitudes Already Set : Students See Little Change From New Expulsion Rules

Although Los Angeles School Board members believe their new mandatory-expulsion rules put students on notice not to take drugs, weapons or violent manners onto campus, a number of students at one East San Fernando Valley high school said Tuesday they doubted the rules would make much difference for them.

“Those few kids who are carrying anything like a knife or whatever, they already know they would get kicked out” if they are caught with the weapon, said Sylmar High School senior Bob Douglas, 18. “They just figure they’re bad, you know; ain’t nobody going to mess with them if they got a knife.”

Douglas and several other Sylmar High School students said in interviews that, although drugs and weapons are a common sight off campus, most students avoid violence or drug use on campus because they believe such activities already bring automatic expulsion.

Of the more than a dozen students interviewed, none was aware that the school board had on Monday stiffened penalties for students who take illegal drugs onto campus or cause physical injury to a school employee. Previous policy allowed the principal to decide what punishment should be imposed, often resulting in temporary suspensions for first-time offenders. The new guidelines, which go into effect April 1, require the principal to make an automatic recommendation of expulsion.

The mandatory expulsion policy for students with weapons on campus was passed last month and goes into effect Friday.

At Sylmar, students reported witnessing drug deals and drug use on campus, but those who had attended other high schools said such activities are less common in the Valley than they are in other parts of the district. Some speculated that the new rules are not aimed at Valley schools at all, but are intended as a warning to inner-city students.

One student expressed concern that the new rules might prove too strict for first-time offenders who unintentionally take a weapon onto campus.

“My sister got busted because she was carrying a knife in her purse that she forgot she had there,” he said. “My dad had lost his knife and she found it and picked it up and put it in there, and then she got searched when she was here a few days later . . . . They didn’t want to send her to juvenile hall or expel her or anything because she’s got good grades. Would things be different for her with these new rules?”

School board member Roberta Weintraub, who represents the East Valley, said in an interview that the new mandatory-expulsion rules would have required the principal to recommend expelling the girl.

‘Mandatory Is Mandatory’

“Mandatory is mandatory. That girl would have been transferred to another school situation,” Weintraub said. “This will send a message to the whole school district, not just some of the kids, that the school district is really serious about this . . . . We know a lot of kids don’t want to lose the privilege of going to their neighborhood school.”

A few students at Sylmar, however, said their peers will continue to do as they please.

“It won’t make a difference. It hasn’t made a difference. If you’re going to do drugs on this campus, you’re going to do them on another campus, wherever they send you,” said sophomore Diana Shrum. She said she advocates allowing “small” weapons on campus for those students who have to travel through a “bad area” to get to school.

Angelo Porcor, assistant principal at Sylmar High School, said students may not be aware of the new board policies because the school’s guidelines already call for students to be expelled in most cases where they are caught with weapons or drugs.

Teachers at Sylmar said they probably will not notice any change because of the mandatory-expulsion rules because they rarely encounter violence, drugs or weapons among their students.

“I can’t imagine any of the students I’ve had ever trying to threaten me,” said math teacher John Tripp. “The students talk about drugs because they want other students to think they do it, but you just don’t see it and I don’t believe there is much happening on campus.”

Reading coordinator Jim Patterson said violence against teachers has never been a problem at Sylmar, although he was threatened once several years ago by a student who was later transferred to a program for emotionally disturbed youths.

“If there is any violence here, it’s just between the students,” he said. “They’ll pick a fight out in the quad area where they know teachers will be able to see it, but where they can hit the guy one or two times and know the fight is going to be broken up by a teacher.”