Farmington High School Expels Seven Students

FARMINGTON — The Farmington School Board has expelled seven students for having drugs on campus since the start of school in August.

Superintendent Bryan Law said he doesn’t have an answer as to why the school has had so many expulsion hearings so far this year.

“They were all independent cases. They don’t relate in any way to each other,” Law said.

He pointed out that the school district had a “run” of expulsion hearings at the beginning of school last year also and then didn’t have any more the rest of the year.

Law said one of his concerns is to make sure the students who have been expelled this semester will be able to graduate on time. The expulsions have included four ninth grad- ers, one 10th grader and an 11th grader. The most recent expulsion hearing was held Monday night.

He said he asked Clint Jones, assistant superintendent, to contact the Arkansas Department of Education about options available to help the students. Currently, students can recover lost credit through an online program or by going to the alternative school.

“If you make a bad choice, with all of that, there’s a price that comes with the bad choice,” Law said. “Then let’s move forward with their education.”

Jeff Oxford, president of the Farmington School Board, also said expulsion hearings seem to be up this year for some reason but Oxford wonders if there are different ways to deal with the students, other than expelling a student for the remainder of the semester.

“I don’t necessarily think when someone makes a mistake, I don’t think sitting at home for the rest of the semester is what’s best for the kid,” Oxford said. “I’d like to look at different options to not have the kids idle.”

Farmington High Principal Jon Purifoy said his school in Texas uses a state approved program where students caught with drugs on campus can be assigned to DAEP or Disciplinary Alternative Education Programs. Students are placed in the program for a 45-day stint with a review at the end of 30 days. If the student is participating in the program with a good report, then the student could return to class at the end of 30 days.

Purifoy said he is not sure if something similar to the Texas program is allowed by Arkansas Department of Education.

“Here’s the thing,” Purifoy said. “We don’t want drugs in our school. Our punishment is as severe as it is because we want to set a standard but we also care about a kid’s education.”

Farmington’s policy says that no student “shall possess, attempt to possess, consume, use, distribute, sell, buy, attempt to sell, attempt to buy, give to any person, or be under the influence of any substance” as defined in the drug and alcohol school policy. The policy says that the maximum penalty is 10 days suspension with recommendation for expulsion and loss of credit for the remainder of the semester.

Law said other ideas are to look at programs to teach students more about drug awareness and starting that with the younger grades.

“I think anytime you have expulsion hearings you need to look at why you’re having expulsions,” Law said. “It’s still a small number but not a small number either.”