School Expulsions Drop as Weapons Rules Make an Impact : Most Officials Attribute Decline to Students Getting the Message on Tough Zero-Tolerance Policies

After rising for years, the number of expulsions in Ventura County school districts is leveling off, the result of tough, anti-weapon policies in place at most districts, educators say.

In 1993-94, 175 students were expelled countywide. In 1992-93, school districts kicked out 169 students, more than in the previous two years combined.

But the pace appears to be slowing. With three months left in the 1994-95 school year, 114 students have been expelled so far. That is significantly fewer than for the equivalent period last year, educators say.

Many school officials attribute the drop to so-called zero-tolerance policies regarding weapons that most school districts have adopted in the past five years. Such policies make it an expellable offense to bring anything that might be used as a weapon to school, be it a gun, a sharpened screwdriver or a Boy Scout penknife.

When districts first began adopting the policies, the number of expulsions grew countywide as educators confiscated anything that could be considered a dangerous object. But now students have learned they must leave those items at home, said Rafael Gonzales, who oversees expulsions in the Oxnard Union High School District.

In most cases, the weapons brought on campus were small folding knives that some students carried in their pockets or backpacks, Gonzales and other officials said.

“Kids really understand now that school administrators are very adamant about zero-tolerance,” Gonzales said. “They know we are not going to turn our heads the other way for anything, even a Swiss army knife.”

Awareness of the policy has also contributed to a rise in the number of students who report seeing weapons on campus, some school officials say. And some districts have capitalized on the heightened awareness by offering rewards for providing information about classmates who bring weapons on campus.

The Conejo Valley Unified and Santa Paula Elementary districts, for instance, have created hot lines students can call to report seeing weapons.

“There are incentives for kids, and their identity is kept anonymous,” said David Philips, superintendent of the Santa Paula district. “They can earn lunch passes, coupons for restaurants and even cash rewards.”

Finally, the effect of the public’s growing concern about violence and resulting campaigns statewide to tighten laws and crack down on criminals has filtered down to school-age children, officials said.

“I think the fact that the whole state is in a zero-tolerance attitude is helping a lot,” said Lucy Schwartz, expulsions officer for the Simi Valley Unified School District. “Kids are thinking, ‘We can’t do this or else we will lose the opportunity to go to school.’ ”

Many parents welcome zero-tolerance policies at school, saying they have helped to make campuses safer. But others are concerned that educators have become so zealous about keeping weapons out of school that they have lost perspective.

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In Simi Valley recently, for example, one family criticized school officials for suspending their 12-year-old son for two days because he carried an empty bullet cartridge to Hillside Junior High School.

Tom Volkenant said the empty bullet attached to a key chain was a trinket he bought for his son, Cory, at an army surplus store. It was meant as a novelty gift, not a dangerous weapon, Volkenant said.

“Boys will be boys,” he said. “These are not gang kids causing trouble. The schools need to look at each case instead of just going by the book.”

But school officials counter that criticism by pointing to the example of Chad Hubbard, a 14-year-old Valley View Junior High student stabbed to death in the winter of 1994 by a 13-year-old classmate.

The knife used in that attack had a blade shorter than three inches, said Gaye Kubat, assistant superintendent of educational services in the Oxnard Elementary School District.

It is “every school district’s nightmare” to have a repetition of the kind of tragedy that took the Simi Valley ninth-grader’s life, Kubat said.

“When I counsel students, I always tell them there was a junior high student in this county killed with a small knife,” she said. “We just can’t take any chances.”

Philips of the Santa Paula district agrees.

“In the ‘50s, when I was a kid, I knew a lot of boys who brought penknives to school, and that was tolerated,” Philips said. “But kids back then weren’t using knives to hurt other people. Our society has changed, and, unfortunately, schools have to respond.”

Under state law, school districts can expel students for a variety of offenses, ranging from selling drugs to punching a teacher. But the vast majority of expulsions today are for possessing weapons, educators say.

Most students are expelled for possessing knives, but guns and other dangerous objects are also confiscated in some cases, officials say.

A student at a Conejo Valley high school was caught last year hiding a hatchet, said Richard Simpson, assistant superintendent of instructional services in the Conejo Valley Unified School District.

“He said he was going to help an ag teacher chop wood,” Simpson said. “We determined that was not true, and he was kicked out.”

Perhaps more alarming, a fifth-grader at Brookside School in Oak Park was found last year with a handgun stuffed in his backpack. School authorities learned about it from classmates who said the student was showing it around, said Oak Park Supt. Marian Lippiatt.

“He apparently found it in his household and decided to bring it to school,” she said.

That student was expelled and is now attending school in another district, she said.

And in Oxnard, two girls were expelled this year for bringing long screwdrivers with sharpened tips to school, said Supt. Donald Hodes of the Ocean View Elementary School District in Oxnard.

“Screwdrivers have become the new weapon of choice,” Hodes said. “Great society, isn’t it?”

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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.

But Gateway offers classes only for seventh- through 12th-grade students; younger expelled students have fewer options. Expelled students can apply for admission to another school district or can receive instruction at home.

Most expulsions last for two semesters, after which a student can apply for reinstatement. Administrators generally agree if there have been no further infractions.

But that does not always happen, educators concede.

“Some can be rehabilitated with no problem,” said Santa Paula’s Philips. “And some we will read about in the paper, unfortunately.”

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Expulsions, by the Numbers

Students expelled from Ventura County schools:

District* ‘90-’91 ‘91-’92 ‘92-’93 ‘93-’94 Briggs Elementary 0 1 0 2 Conejo Valley Unified 16 24 22 33 Fillmore Unified 5 4 10 11 Hueneme Elementary 3 1 5 4 Moorpark Unified 1 1 1 1 Oak Park Unified 2 1 0 5 Ocean View Elementary 0 0 0 0 Ojai Unified 0 0 0 1 Oxnard Elementary 5 6 22 8 Oxnard Union High 31 38 61 49 Pleasant Valley 2 3 0 0 Elementary Rio Elementary 0 0 3 3 Santa Paula Elementary 0 0 3 5 Santa Paula Union High 2 4 8 16 Simi Valley Unified N/A 16 21 17 Ventura Unified 0 0 13 20 TOTALS** 67 99 169 175

(Through March 31) District* ‘94-’95 Briggs Elementary 1 Conejo Valley Unified 22 Fillmore Unified 4 Hueneme Elementary 1 Moorpark Unified 4 Oak Park Unified 3 Ocean View Elementary 4 Ojai Unified 2 Oxnard Elementary 3 Oxnard Union High 29 Pleasant Valley 1 Elementary Rio Elementary 1 Santa Paula Elementary 10 Santa Paula Union High 4 Simi Valley Unified 5 Ventura Unified 20 TOTALS** 114

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

** In addition, at least 19 expulsion cases are pending.