Alternative Punishment for Armed Students Makes Sense : Special-school option fair to them and others

Until this year, the San Diego Unified School District had just one option in dealing with students who brought weapons to school: automatic expulsion. It was a good choice. No one deserves to be booted from a public school faster than the youth who threatens his peers with guns or knives.

But beginning this fall, the school district will have another alternative. Under a new, joint program with the county Office of Education, city school officials will have the added choice of “suspending” expulsions for students guilty of weapons possession and sending them to a special school.

The idea is a sound attempt by the school district to protect innocent students while keeping high-risk youths working for a diploma.

Students sanctioned for violating the school weapons policy are often in danger of dropping out in the first place.

They are often poor, substance abusers or gang members. They gain nothing from expulsion to the streets. Many spend the time--which can run as long as a year--without any schooling, and come back to find themselves further behind peers. A significant number don’t return to school at all.

The new program will place these kids in smaller classes where they can receive more attention from teachers and teaching assistants. Intensive counseling is planned.

Administrators stress that if space in the new program fills up, violators won’t be left in the general school population, as was often the case in the Los Angeles public school system before a get-tough policy was adopted this year. Additional violators would be expelled.

That component of the new plan is essential to other students’ ability to pursue an education secure in the knowledge that they are safe from harm.