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« Bill filed to prohibit restoring tolls at Mt. Hope Bridge | Today | 3 Warren stores cited for selling cigarettes to 17-year-old » January 9, 2008Bill seeks uniform penalty for students who abuse alcoholStudents who violate school policy by possessing or using alcohol or drugs -- on or off school property -- would be suspended from school sports teams, clubs, dances, proms, and other activities for one year, under a bill filed today in the General Assembly. Filed after a year of several deaths and arrests involving alcohol and teenagers, the proposed legislation would require all schools that participate in the Rhode Island Interscholastic Sports League to suspend violators for a calendar year. The suspension would not apply to activities mandated for all students, such as graduation-required community service. Students who are suspended in their senior year of high school would not be allowed to attend graduation ceremonies and related events, even if academically eligible to graduate. The bill does not stop a student who is academically eligible from graduating. Currently, discipline of students who violate a school's alcohol/drugs policy is imposed case by case under guidelines set by each district's School Committee. The bill says that besides the one-year suspension, any additional discipline would be imposed as it now is: case by case under the School Committee-set guidelines of each district. Rep. Jan Malik, D-Warren, whose district includes Warren and part of Barrington, is the bill's primary sponsor. Malik said that if the proposed suspension period of one calendar year becomes an issue, he would have "no problem" trying to find a compromise on the time period. He said his main focus is to establish a uniform policy.
After La Salle Academy in Providence suspended 31 students who police say attended a Bristol house party -- including La Salle varsity football players who missed the Thanksgiving Day game as a result -- Malik said he felt the academy did the right thing. He also wondered about a potential situation in which students from different schools attend a party but receive different -- perhaps widely different -- disciplinary action, and what message that may send. He said he hoped the bill would equalize the discipline. Malik said that if the bill becomes law, he wants school departments to send letters to families explaining the law. He also said he would like schools to conduct assemblies at the beginning of the academic year on the new law. "I think we send millions of dollars" to schools in communities, Malik said, so "something as important as this should be universal." The bill has been referred to the House Finance Committee. Posted by Mike McKinney CommentsDavid Dowdell | January 10, 2008 10:37 AM link While I agree that all around uniformity in our school systems is certainly desirable, including any proposed penalty for underage alcohol abuse, I do not consider the suspension from extracurricular activities a viable or helpful solution to the real problem. Simply suspending students from extracurricular activities would have an overall detrimental effect. We should be encouraging healthy participation in productive after-school activities, not banning students from them because of a mistake they may have made. Imposing such penalties is unduly shameful (that is, for the simple possession of alchohol; drunk driving is another issue deserving harsher penalties) and doesn't contribute to a student's sense of usefulness, well-being, and needlessly deprives them of the beneficial social interaction that comes with extracurricular activities. In essence, the proposed punishment does not fit the offense. That said, if the possession/consumption of alcohol by minors remains illegal, it should not be left unpunished. Though I believe that the laws pertaining to alcohol use should be augmented (we have a very distorted attitude towards alcohol in this country), if we are to have any laws at all we must respect those which are currently on the books, even the ones with which we disagree. Therefore if the current laws remain in place, I propose that instead of suspending students from beneficial extracurricular activities we should impose a fine, but more importantly impose mandatory community service in addition to suspension from perhaps a few events (like the next big football game, for example) to send a message, but certainly not all. One might say that this may not be a harsh enough punishment but I hold that it better fits the offense, because I would not like to see an otherwise productive student essentially lose one year of his/her adolescent life for such a trivial offense (remember, I'm not talking about drunk driving, etc.). In my opinion, to do so would be a greater harm and is not in the best interest of our community. Derek Brockmann | January 10, 2008 9:51 PM link Post a commentPlease be civil. Vicious comments, personal attacks and profanity won't be published. Name and email are required; email address will not publish. |
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ProJo 9 to 5 News Blog
Oct 2005 - March 2006
Stupid proposal. I have a better idea. DO AWAY WITH THE DRINKING AGE!!!!!! Problem solved!