Board Acts Cautiously on Student Conduct Code

Concerned but cautious, the San Dieguito school board Thursday night moved to get students, parents and teachers involved in writing a code of conduct to curb off-campus violence by students.

“If the adults in this community don’t say very clearly to students what is acceptable and unacceptable behavior, then we’re all lost,” school board member MaryAnn McCarthy said.

Board member Mary Lou Schultz said she hopes parents begin to realize the dangers posed by unsupervised teen-age parties. The Sheriff’s Department says such parties nearly always include alcohol and drugs and are a major cause of violence among teens in the affluent coastal communities.

The board discussion concerned a proposal by district Supt. William Berrier to require all students participating in extracurricular activities to sign a code of conduct covering behavior both on campus and off.

The proposal is thought to be the first of its kind in San Diego County to cover off-campus conduct, a controversial and legally tricky area for school districts.

Gang-Like Attacks

Berrier’s proposal was prompted by public concern over the fact that nine current or former San Dieguito High School athletes are charged in three gang-like attacks in North County. Four of the nine are varsity football players. The mother of a recent graduate allegedly attacked by San Dieguito students at a party in Olivenhain supported Berrier’s proposal.

“I’m really glad you’ve finally realized there is a problem and you’re going to try to solve it,” said Gloria El-Ghoroury. “Maybe if we had had a little help earlier, we wouldn’t have to be here.”

But others parents found Berrier’s proposal vague and written in haste. One threatened a lawsuit if it is adopted, and others said it is overly harsh on students who participate in extracurricular activities.

“It seems tragic in this bicentennial year of the Constitution that we are considering a prejudicial kind of action like this,” parent John Weber told the board. “I don’t disagree with the idea of a code of conduct, but it should be universally applied.”

Board members were interested in the idea of a code of conduct but foresaw legal and practical problems as administrators grappled with investigating off-campus incidents and trying to mete out punishment.

Board member David H. Thompson, an attorney, said it would be folly to try to make administrators into “judicial officials.”

Like several other members, he said the proposal would have to be “modified substantially” before he could support it. He complained bitterly that press coverage has damaged the vast majority of students, who are not involved in violence.

Review of Proposal

“Ninety-nine percent of our students don’t need a code of conduct to tell them not to commit felonies,” Schultz said.

In the end, the board decided to ask various Parent-Teacher Assn. groups and other school committees to review the proposal and consider alternatives. No date was set for the matter to return to the board, although Berrier indicated it would take at least a month.

The code of conduct is meant to cover all six schools in the San Dieguito Union High School District: San Dieguito and Sunset high schools in Encinitas, Torrey Pines High in Del Mar, Diegueno and Oak Crest junior highs in Encinitas, and Earl Warren Junior High in Solana Beach.

Under Berrier’s proposal, a student could be removed from a team, school club or student government for off-campus misconduct such as fighting, stealing, drinking, using drugs, using profane or vulgar language, or destroying property.

The code would not be retroactive and thus would not cover the three alleged beatings.

School officials, stung by the publicity over the incidents, have attempted to take a hands-off attitude, explaining that the incidents occurred off-campus and, in one instance, during the summer.

The victims of the alleged beatings have asked that school officials remove the defendants from the football team, but officials have said they do not have the authority to do so.

In a memo last weekend to school board members, Berrier provided a synopsis of a county counsel’s opinion that supported his approach.

‘Difficult to Establish’

Berrier told board members, “The county counsel advises that it would be difficult to establish a basis for district action that included denial of athletic eligibility in this particular situation.”

Berrier quoted the county counsel as explaining that, even if the students are convicted, the district is hampered in taking action by the fact that it did not have an official code of conduct covering off-campus behavior when the incidents occurred.

However, other lawyers have different opinions.

Rob DeKoven, an assistant professor of law at California Western School of Law, said the district has not only the power but also the duty to keep potentially violent students away from other students. To fail to do so, he said, could leave the district vulnerable to lawsuits alleging “negligent supervision” if one of the students attacks or injures another student.

An education law specialist with the legal panel of the American Civil Liberties Union in San Diego, DeKoven says that in many cases schools are too restrictive with students. But the specter of violent students on campus, even if their violence occurred off campus, is a different matter, he said.

“There has not been a case yet in California, but in cases outside the state the clear trend is to give schools power over off-campus incidents if there is a reasonable necessity to protect the physical safety of other students,” DeKoven said in an interview.

‘Legally Justified’

“I think the district would be legally justified keeping the defendants off the team in the interim, as long as they had a hearing, and certainly keeping them off after a conviction,” he added.

Deputy County Counsel Desiree Bruce-Lyle, who acts as legal adviser to San Dieguito and 19 other school districts, said she was prevented from discussing her advice to Berrier because of attorney-client confidentiality.

While the school board ponders whether to adopt a code of conduct to cover any future cases of off-campus violence, the fate of the San Dieguito football team may be decided as much in the courts as on the field--giving a certain poignancy to the Mustangs’ 1987 slogan, “Blue Is Not Through.”

A star linebacker and a promising running back are set for a readiness hearing Oct. 7, along with a running back who played for the junior varsity last year but is ineligible this year becaus of low grades.

At a readiness hearing opposing lawyers talk about whether they are ready to proceed to trial, and whether a plea bargain is possible. That the defendants’ lawyers asked for a readiness hearing rather than a trial date could indicate a plea bargain is in the offing.

One Issue in Case

One issue apparently is whether the judge will remove the defendants from the football team if they plead guilty.

A trial is set for Oct. 19 for a former San Dieguito student who has since transferred to Grossmont High and won a spot as a starting defensive lineman. A San Dieguito defensive tackle is set to begin trial Oct. 26.

Only one defendant, Erik Heipt, a star wrestler who graduated in June and is attending the University of Colorado, has had a trial.

Heipt, 19, was convicted of misdemeanor battery, but his lawyer intends to appeal the conviction. Among the possible grounds is that a juror talked to a reporter about the case during the trial.