NEWPORT BEACH : School District May Tighten Drug Rules

They’re calling it a “nearly zero-tolerance” approach.

After more than eight months of discussions among principals, parents and administrators, the Newport-Mesa Unified School District Board of Education is preparing to approve a new student policy outlining the consequences for students found with or under the influence of drugs or alcohol.

Under the policy, the first offense would result in the students’ automatically being transferred to another school in the district. The second time they are found with drugs or alcohol, the students would be expelled.

The new policy evolved from the school’s current policy on drug and alcohol use, which calls for students to be suspended for up to five days for their first offense. According to board member James de Boom, students don’t take suspensions seriously enough.

“I’ve asked a lot of teachers how they feel about the difference” between the two policies, de Boom said. The students, he said, often treat suspension as a five-day vacation and head to Disneyland or Knott’s Berry Farm. “But if they know they can’t be with their friends for the next semester, that may have a bigger impact than suspension,” he said.

Administrators, including Supt. John Nicoll, emphasized that the stricter guidelines should be viewed as a deterrent.

“It’s just like the atomic bomb,” Nicoll said during the meeting. “It’s there. We just hope to God we’ll never have to use it.”

During Tuesday night’s meeting, Newport Harbor High School Principal Dennis Evans said every student’s case will be fully reviewed before any action is taken. Evans said that with the stricter penalties under the new guidelines, administrators would be especially careful when deciding that a child had been under the influence.

Under previous drafts, the student guidelines called for students caught with drugs or alcohol to be transferred to a continuation school on the first offense. But, according to Suzanne Pannier, a parent of a Newport-Mesa student, such action would have been disruptive to the student’s academic career and a “very drastic step.”

Despite modifications to the proposals, Pannier said, the discipline is going to be a surprise to the first students transferred after their first offense. She added that there needs to be a real effort to communicate the new policy to parents.

Although there are still a number of changes that need to be included before the policy is adopted by the district, board member Sherry Loofbourrow said that most members support the concept.

“As the students get older, I think society as a whole sends them such a mixed message they begin to not know what’s acceptable and not acceptable,” Loofbourrow said. “Somebody needs to send an absolutely clear message, and that’s us.”

The board is expected to adopt the first reading of the new policy on July 24.