Weapons Cause Big Jump in Expulsions at County Schools

Twenty years ago, schools typically expelled only the very worst students, the incorrigible few who committed some unpardonable violation of the rules.

Expulsion is still the punishment of last resort. But school districts in Ventura County are resorting to it much more frequently.

In the 1992-93 school year, Ventura County school districts kicked out 169 students, more than in the previous two years combined. And this school year, the number of expulsions is approaching last year’s high: 104 students have been expelled since fall and at least 32 other cases are pending.

Under state law, school districts can expel students for a variety of misdeeds that range from selling drugs to punching a teacher.

But the dramatic increase in the number of expulsions in the county is due mainly to a single offense: weapons possession.

Driven both by public concern over school safety and by new state laws, many districts have begun to automatically expel students caught with any type of weapon--from guns to bats to penknives.

The hard-line policy works, school officials say, to protect students from classmates who might be prone to violence.

“It gets a message out loud and clear that we have a zero tolerance for weapons,” Supt. Joseph Spirito of the Ventura Unified School District said.

But it has a downside, some officials say.

By expelling students for up to one school year, they say, schools could be failing in their primary responsibility to educate all children.

“We do have the responsibility of not only having safe campuses but also of ensuring a good education for kids,” said Mary Samples, director of pupil support services for the Hueneme Elementary School District. “In the long run, if you look at it, if we expel a kid, maybe we tend to make them more at risk than if they were in the system.”

While expelling problem students might help schools, it could create bigger troubles for society.

“We have to be very careful we’re not just throwing kids out of the district with no place for them to go,” said Howard Hamilton, assistant superintendent with the Pleasant Valley Elementary School District. “You don’t want a lot of angry kids roaming the streets.”

Under a new state law that took effect Jan. 1, students expelled from any California school district for certain offenses, including selling drugs on campus or possessing weapons, are forbidden from enrolling in any other district in the state during the period of the expulsion.

Ventura County students who are expelled are eligible to attend Gateway Community School in Camarillo, a continuation school run by the county superintendent of schools.

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But Gateway offers classes for seventh- through 12th-grade students only, which leaves younger expelled students without a public school to attend.

“It’s a tough call for us,” said Spirito of Ventura. “We’re not sure we want to put a sixth-grader on the street for a year with no education.”

Ventura school officials deal with this problem by sending teaching assistants to the homes of younger students who are expelled.

Despite the possible pitfalls of expelling students, many county educators say it’s the best method they have for ensuring that their schools meet one of the most fundamental requirements of parents, teachers and students: campus safety.

“Nobody wants to work on a campus that isn’t safe and nobody wants to go to school where it’s not safe,” said Samples, who is also a parent. “The bottom line with parents is that none of us want to think that we’re sending our children to school every day and they’re in danger.”

Prior to October, 1993, California law entitled but did not require school principals to recommend that their school boards expel students caught with weapons.

But a law that took effect last fall made it mandatory for districts to hold formal expulsion hearings for all students found carrying firearms, knives or other dangerous objects.

Although that law was superseded in January by a more lenient version that requires expulsion hearings only for students caught with a gun, many local school districts have nevertheless continued to expel students found with any type of weapon.

“The difference is that in the past the principal may have said, ‘Well, this kid’s got a Swiss army knife at school, let me take it away from him. Let’s look at his record and decide what punishment to mete out,’ ” Ojai Unified School District Supt. Andrew Smidt said. Now, he said, principals don’t have that discretion.

Since Ojai set it’s zero-tolerance policy on weapons last year, the number of expulsions in the district has gone from zero to seven--all for weapons possession.

None of the weapons were guns, Smidt said. Most were pocket knives with blades no longer than two or three inches.

Although Ojai school officials stuck to their strict policy of expulsion for weapons possession, they also took into account their belief that most of the children had brought the weapons to school without any intention of using them against any other person.

Also, district officials considered that the only public school available for expelled students is Gateway, which is about a 45-minute drive from Ojai.

“Gateway is a tougher option for us,” Smidt said. And, he said, “we don’t want to take educational opportunities away from kids.”

So the Ojai school board decided to suspend six of the seven expulsions.

Under suspended expulsions--a punishment that some county school districts use with children who are too young to attend Gateway--students are able to continue their education in their home districts either through independent study or by even attending regular classes.

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But they are on a strict probation: If they are caught breaking any school rules, they can be kicked out of their districts without any hearings.

In some county school districts, officials began taking a harder line with students caught with weapons even before the new state laws took effect.

The Conejo Valley and Oxnard Union High School districts have for at least the past few years followed strict policies of expelling students caught with any type of weapon.

Some districts decided to crack down on students caught carrying any type of guns and knives following incidents of school violence.

The Ventura school district set it’s zero-tolerance policy on weapons last spring after a Ventura High School student was killed near campus.

In Simi Valley, last month’s stabbing death of a 14-year-old student by a classmate at Valley View Junior High School spread alarm not only among parents and school officials, but also among students.

Since the Feb. 1 killing of Chad Hubbard, more Simi Valley students are reporting on classmates carrying knives, bricks and other potential weapons.

“Kids are giving up a whole lot more information,” said Leslie Crunelle, director of secondary education. “We’re finding out about a lot more stuff.”

The district has expelled three students since the Valley View incident and has 12 other cases pending. Before the incident, the district had 18 expulsions for the school year.

Although some of the expelled students had assaulted a classmate or were caught with drugs, most were found carrying knives or dangerous objects such as stink bombs or bricks, Crunelle said.

None of the students caught with weapons since the Valley View slaying was threatening other people, she said. In one case, a boy was punished simply for pulling out a Swiss army knife to trim strings off his backpack.

Before the violence at Valley View, that boy probably would not have been considered for expulsion, she said.

But because of the heightened concern, the school board expelled the student, then immediately suspended the expulsion and transferred him to another school in the district.

“We’re trying to send a very strong message to kids and to parents that we do not want any object on our campus that has no value instructionally and that can be conceived of as a weapon,” Crunelle said.

And most students will probably get the message, school officials said.

Some educators said they expect the number of expulsions for weapons in the county to level off or decline in a year or two, as students realize the harsh consequences of carrying weapons to school and leave their knives or guns at home.

Students who are expelled may appeal to the Ventura County Board of Education, which can rule whether a school district board followed the state education code in ordering an expulsion.

Of the 11 expulsion appeals that the county board has considered in the past two years, it has sided with the school district about two-thirds of the time, county officials said.

State law allows school districts to expel students for a maximum of two semesters. At the end of the expulsion periods, students may petition to return to their districts.

But school districts are not required to accept them. In the tiny Briggs Elementary School District near Santa Paula, officials two years ago expelled a seventh-grader who was caught with a knife on campus.

When the student asked to return, the school board turned him down because during the expulsion period he had gotten into trouble with the law, Supt. Carol L. Vines said, declining to give more details on the case. “It wasn’t safe to have him here.”

Not all students want to return.

Victor Quintero was expelled from the Oxnard Union High School District three years ago after he was caught wielding a lead pipe in a riot between groups of black and Latino teen-agers at Oxnard High School.

During the first few months after he was kicked out of the district, Quintero did not attend school at all. “I was just kicking with my homeys,” the 18-year-old said.

Then Quintero enrolled at Gateway where, officials said, he has thrived in the family like atmosphere, which offers its 450 students small classes and more individual attention than is typically available at public schools.

Quintero, who is president of his welding class and who plans to attend Ventura College next year, said he has had no desire to return to Oxnard High.

“I like coming here,” he said.

Students Expelled From School

(Through) (March 2) District* ‘90-91 ‘91-92 ‘92-93 ‘93-94 Briggs Elementary 0 1 0 2 Conejo Valley Unified 16 24 22 12 Fillmore Unified 5 4 10 8 Hueneme Elementary 3 1 5 2 Moorpark Unified 1 1 1 1 Oak Park Unified 2 1 0 2 Ojai Unified 0 0 0 7 Oxnard Elementary 5 6 22 7 Oxnard Union High 31 38 61 23 Pleasant Valley Elementary 2 3 0 1 Rio Elementary 0 0 3 2 Santa Paula Elementary 0 0 3 1 Santa Paula Union High 2 4 8 11 Simi Valley Unified N/A 16 21 21 Ventura Unified 0 0 13 5 TOTALS** 67 99 169 105

* The chart does not list five county school districts that had no expulsions in the past four years: Mesa, Mupu, Ocean View, Santa Clara and Somis.

** In addition, at least 32 expulsion cases are pending.