Council Rock Relaxes Punishment For Controlled Subtance Violations

NEWTOWN, PA — The Council RockSchool District will be relaxing its punishment for first time
offenders of the district’s controlled substance and paraphernalia policy.

The board voted 5 to 2 with one abstention on March 16 to approve a change to its policy reducing a 45 day automatic out of school suspension for the first offense to 10 days. The board also asked that the administration revisit the policy annually to determine whether or not it’s still acting as a deterrent.

“I’m not going to talk bad about other districts, but if you do some research you’d be surprised that while 45 days is a lot, there is a deterrent to it,” said board president Ed Salamon. “For me, the first offense has to be 10 days with a yearly follow up by the administration.”

Some on the board favored a motion recommending up to 10 days of suspension. Salamon, a key swing vote on the issue, however said he’d prefer no less than a 10 day suspension.

Board member Bob Hickey, who voted in favor of the motion, argued that the current policy does more harm than good pretty much ostracizing the offending student for 45 days regardless of the severity of the offense.

“I watched children in that 45 day suspension. In most cases it was just a kid who made a dumb mistake,” he said. “I’m glad to see it changed and hopefully there will be no increase in the drug paraphernalia or otherwise.”

Board member Mike Thorwart voted against the change, concerned that a relaxation of the punishment could lead to a corresponding increase in incidents.

“We don’t have a controlled substance problem to the extent other districts do because of our current policy and therefore I cannot support lightening it up,” said Thorwart.

Board member Mike Roosevelt said the future is going to be the “greatest predictor of whether we’re making the right decision or not. I would highly suggest that the administration follow this deeply to make sure that incidents don’t increase and if they were to increase this is a policy that might come up again for reversal.”