Keep them in school
Counseling is the right response to pot possession
Pittsburgh Public Schools has taken a step in the right direction in dealing with students who bring marijuana into a school building.
The district has revised its consequence for this violation of the school conduct code to more pointedly address the root of the problem.
Beginning March 1, students caught for the first time with fewer than 5 grams of pot in his possession will have the option of attending drug counseling sessions in lieu of a 10-day out-of-school suspension. In exchange for participating in the counseling, which would be held on weeknights or Saturdays, the student will endure a shorter, five-day suspension.
This is a more appropriate response to the problem but the district could do better.
It makes no sense to boot from school for any length of time a student who has misbehaved, if the misbehavior is nonviolent. Any out-ofschool suspension potentially complicates the situation, especially when the punishment is for a behavior that involves drug use. An out-ofschool suspension, even for a day, let alone a full school week, places a problem student in circumstances where more problems are likely to occur or be created. Any absence — a school-mandated absence, no less — means no teacher-led education as well as a likelihood of more bad behavior occurring during the suspension, which could be unsupervised because many kids are from homes in which the parental figures are absent, unavailable, disinterested or incapable of giving the kid what he or she needs to get out of and stay out of trouble.
School officials need to get their heads in a new place on the issue of out-of-school suspensions. They are based on the notion that most students appreciate the value of their education and fear the consequences of missing school — that untaken tests and unawarded class participation points can mean bad report cards, which can limit their post-secondary plans.
Some kids and their parents may rue an out-of-school suspension and the broader implication of that punishment. But many, if not most, kids who already are having trouble toeing the line in school will see an outof-school suspension as nothing more than a vacation when what he or she needs, maybe even more than his or her classmates, is greater supervision and extra help with studies. Furthermore, a student using any drug is a student seeking an escape from his reality. This is a student who needs counseling, not punishment.
The school district is working in partnership with Three Rivers Youth, a service agency for young people across the Pittsburgh area, to bring a full-time drug and alcohol counselor and part-time “parent specialist” to the Pittsburgh Public Schools next fall. This will enhance the services already in place within the district to deal with discipline issues, including drug use. Marijuana offenses result in the second-greatest number of suspensions district-wide, second only to fighting. In the 2017-18 school year, 161 incidents of student pot possession were recorded.
A student using marijuana during the school day on school property is a student likely to use marijuana when not on school property. Any out-of-school suspension just makes the drug use easier. It’s a vacation from supervision and, even more important, from the education the student desperately needs — whether he or she realizes or not that he needs it.
The new policy gets halfway to where it needs to be. A best-practices policy would nix the out-of-school suspension entirely and replace it with more extensive and intensive counseling.