School Board Relaxes Policy on Students With Guns

The Los Angeles school board Monday backpedaled on its year-old policy requiring expulsion of students caught with guns, allowing some young students to be sent to alternative work or education programs instead of being expelled outright.

Last year, the board toughened its expulsion policy to force the committee that reviews the cases of students caught with guns to recommend expulsion for every student, regardless of circumstances. In practice, however, the board often overruled its own requirements when it made the final decision--particularly when junior high youths were involved--and assigned the students to off-campus education programs.

The revision would restore the committee’s discretion to recommend alternative placement for students younger than 16 who are caught with guns or involved in attacks on other students or staff. The board retains the final say.

“The motion recognizes the reality that when you expel a child from school, they don’t disappear off the face of the earth,” said board member Jeff Horton, who voted with the 4-2 majority to support the revision. “It protects the regular school campus by finding a place for them so they’re not hanging around” and tries to reform violence-prone students through special programs, he said.

Board members Roberta Weintraub and Mark Slavkin opposed the change, with Weintraub calling it “a mealy-mouthed policy” that implies that students need not fear the consequences of bringing guns to school.

The strict-expulsion policy was adopted last year, after a task force studying school violence recommended the board toughen its stand against guns on campus and require the removal of all students caught carrying firearms or using any weapon in an assault.

But in the past year, board members have frequently overruled those mandated expulsions because they felt that circumstances in individual cases warranted a less severe punishment--in effect, a second chance--and because expelled youngsters often wound up on the streets.

In the 1988-89 school year, more than 400 students were considered for expulsion for bringing weapons, explosives or other “dangerous objects” to school. Most were allowed to transfer to special programs, and many of those were returned to regular schools after two semesters.