By VICKI URBANIK

The number of expulsions in the 2005-06 school year increased by about 20 percent in the Duneland School Corporation compared with the previous year.

In addition, the number of kids in trouble due to drug or alcohol offenses more than doubled last year. And, for the first time seen at Duneland, illegal use of prescription drugs was involved in a number of cases.

In his annual expulsion report to the Duneland School Board Monday, school expulsion examiner Mark McKibben said 87 students were referred to him in “due process,” the term given to a disciplinary process that could result in formal probation or expulsion. The year before, 77 students were in due process.

Of those 87 students, 45 were placed on Form 16, which is a type of probation. Of those, 11 violated the terms of their probation and were expelled.

Another 42 expulsion meetings were requested with the students who weren’t placed on Form 16. Of those, 25 students or their families failed to respond and were expelled. Expulsion hearings were held with the other 17, resulting in 16 expulsions.

The last student was placed on probation but violated the terms of the probation and was expelled.

That brought the total of students who were expelled to 53. In the previous school year, 42 were expelled.

McKibben, who also serves as Duneland’s director of special services, said the breakdown of students in due process was as follows: Three in 7th grade; 11 in 8th grade; 15 freshmen; 17 sophomores; 24 juniors; and 17 seniors.

Parent Alert: Pharm Parties

The reason kids end up in due process varies, but McKibben said there is one statistic that sticks out: Twenty-five kids were in due process last year because of drugs or alcohol -- more than double the previous year’s 11.

But what’s surprising, McKibben said, was that he had a number of cases involving kids bringing their parents’ or others’ prescription drugs to school.

In the past, the drug violations almost always involved marijuana, alcohol or possession of paraphernalia, but last school year was the first time that he has seen kids bringing others’ prescription drugs to school.

“That was alarming to me,” he said.

Duneland School Board President Mike Trout noted the type of parties called Pharm Parties, in which kids bring to parties prescription drugs or other over-the-counter drugs from home, mix all the pills together, and share them with each other.

Pharm parties can take different forms, such as kids randomly drawing a color and picking only those colored pills from the bowl or drawing a number and picking that many pills from the bowl.

Trout urged parents to be on the alert: If there are prescription drugs at home, “lock them up.”

Of the other reasons Duneland kids ended up in due process last year, McKibben said 27 displayed characteristics described as disobedient, disrespectful, or disruptive; one was involved in a fight; three were related to theft or property damage; one involved a knife at school; and 30, all at the high school level, were excessively truant or tardy.

Duneland Superintendent Dirk Baer said it will be interesting to see the impact of a new state law that bars students from dropping out of school before the age of 18.

Positive Life

Also at Monday’s Duneland School Board meeting, Positive Life Program Director Gloria Guerrero gave her annual report.

Positive Life is a program aimed at getting students and staff members to quit smoking, to stop using alcohol or drugs, or to improve in other areas such as anger management.

In the last school year, 156 students were referred to Positive Life, with 90 percent completing their assignments.

Of those referred because of tobacco use, 99 percent completed their assignment with no repeat violations, Guerrero said.

Of those in the drug and alcohol program, 95 percent had no repeat violations, she said.

Of those in the interpersonal skills program, 37 percent had no repeat violations. Guerrero said she will be reviewing that part of the program, since she is not pleased with the success rate.

Students are referred to the Positive Life Program in a number of ways, such as by self-referral, the Student Assistance Team, Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Thode’s tobacco court, juvenile probation officials, parents or teachers.

Counseling

Guerrero also presented an Employee Assistance Program proposal in which the Duneland Schools would contract with the Choices counseling group for onsite mental health therapy to employees.

The services provided would include general therapy, marriage counseling and stress management. Employees, and their immediate family members, would be able to take up to three sessions, with the school system picking up the costs; after that, the employees’ medical insurance would be applied.

No cost estimates were presented. The school board took the proposal under advisement.

Posted 10/3/2006