The Student Rights and Responsibilities policy establishes detentions, suspensions and referrals to the Superintendent’s Office as consequences available to the administration. These consequences have been set in place to create a safe environment for students and to function as punishments for those who misbehave.
The most basic consequence that can be earned according to the SR&R are detentions, which are used for minor offenses. Some offenses that the SR&R includes as detention-worthy are cheating on a test, disrespectful behavior and frequent absences. Detentions are generally after school, in the library or cafeteria from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. with system of support adviser Kevin Wallace watching over the students.
“It’s almost like a study hall, I would say,” dean of students Miranda Hendershot said. “Because they can bring any work that they have and they can get it done.”
Suspensions are yet another consequence that apply to students who consistently fail to follow the guidelines set by the SR&R. The administration then decides whether or not the student should receive an in-school or out-of-school suspension.
“Oftentimes it’s up to the principal or the assistant principal’s discretion as to the severity of the incident, the history of that student with similar incidents and whether or not we feel an out of school suspension is going to change the behavior,” principal Jeff Litz said.
The SR&R lists offenses that lead to students receiving a suspension, including assault, arson, vandalism and being under the influence of drugs. However, those definitions can be fluid depending on the infraction.
“I know for this year, so far, a lot of people have had in-school suspension for excessively skipping classes, and skipping detention will get you an in-school suspension,” Hendershot said.
Although suspensions generally do not lead to the student being suspended out of school, it is up to the administration to decide whether or not the offender should be removed or barred from campus.
“Generally we try to deal with student discipline in school, because taking students out of school takes them out of the classroom,” Litz said. “This is achieved with in-school suspensions, which are in the ISS room near the cafeteria with Mr. Wallace and Mr. Lin in charge.”
In-school suspensions are held in Room A102, the ISS support room, with both Wallace and ISS resource teacher Jerry Lin as support teachers. Once students are in the room, they work on assignments that their teachers have assigned them, and if they need assistance both Wallace and Lin available for help.
“We don’t have answers to every single question,” Lin said. “However, we usually do a pretty good job of trying to find the right answer from the resources that we have at the school.”
Both Wallace and Lin work to make in-school suspension seem like an average day in school, by having attendees experience the same schedule as other students. However, instead of being in regular classes they are working in the in-school suspension room.
“They still have bathroom breaks, lunch and walking in the hallway sometimes if necessary,” Lin said. “All it is, is that they are going to spend the class time with us so that they’re caught up with their school work. So just because it’s in-school suspension doesn’t mean that they’re in a confined cell or anything like that the entire time.”
The highest form of punishment that the SR&R dictates is receiving a referral to the Superintendent’s Office, which can lead to several possible punishments.
“Those referrals can lead to a student being thrown out of school for an entire year, being placed in other high schools, being placed in another alternative school or just coming back here,” assistant principal Dan Daus said.
The SR&R states that a few of the offenses that can lead to a referral to the Superintendent’s Office are sexual assault, possession of weapons, and the possession, distribution and use of drugs on school grounds. However, the number of Marshall’s referrals to the Superintendent’s Office have lowered from seven in 2015 to only four so far in 2016.
“We used to average at about 6 to 12 each year, but those are extreme cases,” Daus said.
Some offenses are even out of the county or state’s hands. In 1994 Congress passed the Gun-Free Schools Act, which mandated that states enact legilsation requiring schools to expel any student found with a deadly weapon on school grounds for a minimum of one year. A number of counties have linked this with zero-tolerance policies and applied the same punishments to possession of controlled substances, fighting and gambling.
The SR&R sets consequences as a standard in FCPS, stated by the school board to be intended as an effort to establish a safer environment in schools.
They are used by both teachers and administration to build a connection between the student and the school, while also setting meaningful guidelines for the students to follow.
“It builds a bridge to the building that the student might not have had,” Wallace said. “It gives us a little bit of flexibility.”