Suspended Delaware student heads back to first grade thanks to policy change

Six-year-old Zachary Christie can return to school today. Inundated by more than 1,000 phone calls and a national media frenzy, and faced with a couple hundred people who showed up to protest, the Christina School Board opened its meeting by unanimously voting Tuesday night to amend its zero-tolerance policy, clearing the way for Zachary's return to his first-grade class.

On Sept. 29, Zachary was suspended for five days when he brought a camping utensil with a knife, fork and spoon to Downes Elementary. Zachary planned to use the tool at lunch to eat his pudding. Under the district policy, he was also prohibited from returning to the Newark elementary school until he completed at least 45 days at an alternative school.

Now, students in kindergarten or first grade who bring a dangerous instrument to school will face a three- to five-day out-of-school suspension and then be allowed to return to their school where they will receive counseling. The change is retroactive to the beginning of the school year.

"We need to recognize the cognitive level of these kids," said school board member John Mackenzie. "We need to provide a little leeway."

"I'm thrilled Zachary will be able to go back to school," Zachary's mother, Debbie Christie, told a group of local and national media after the board's vote. "I'm overwhelmed. I'm sure my son is overwhelmed, and I'm ready to get back to my private life."

Kenneth Trump, a national school safety consultant, said suspending a 6-year-old for bringing a knife to school is not uncommon, but forcing a 6-year-old to go to an alternative school for 45 days is "over the top" compared to other districts across the country.

"School officials are certainly much more inclined to err on the side of safety in a post-Columbine and Virginia Tech world, but that doesn't mean that we don't need to have discretion or common sense," Trump said. "The consequences for a 6-year-old first-grade boy with a camping utensil should be different than a 16-year-old student with multiple knives and weapons with intent to kill students and staff."

According to the district's code of conduct, if the full blade of a knife is shorter than 3 inches, school officials consider it a dangerous instrument; 3 inches or longer and it is a deadly weapon. The blade on Zachary's utensil was shorter than three inches.

Prior to Tuesday's board meeting, the district had said it had to follow its policy consistently to be fair.

Ronnie Casella, an associate professor of education at Central Connecticut State University, said too often districts create zero-tolerance policies because they're afraid of giving different consequences to different students.

"They're scared of opening themselves up to a lawsuit so they turn to these one-size-fits-all policies. But unfortunately that leads to some crazy kind of decisions and some strange and odd outcomes," he said.

Christina Superintendent Marsha Lyles said principals had expressed concern about the lack of flexibility in the district's policy.

"We want to make sure this [policy] is equitably addressed," she said. "We need to have very clear guidelines and expectations of behavior that everyone adheres to."

Al Cavalier, an associate professor in the school of education at the University of Delaware who specializes in classroom and behavior management, said the Christina issue is part of a much broader national problem schools have been facing as they try to strike a balance in how to react to these kinds of situations. Determining intent usually is the key.

"The context is everything. Schools, parents and children are all struggling to find the right balance," he said.

School districts also need to be more inclusive as they create new disciplinary policies, he said.

"I think we all could provide a more public hearing about these policies before they're formed," Cavalier said.

Christina had already scheduled a workshop for the beginning of November to examine the district's code of conduct and see what, if any, improvement could be made. Wendy Lapham, the district's spokeswoman, said more changes to the district's policy could be made then.

State Rep. Terry Schooley, D-Newark, who sponsored legislation in the spring to allow districts to modify the terms of an expulsion or determine expulsion is not appropriate, said she hopes the district will do a thorough evaluation of their student discipline policies and give even more flexibility and discretion to school principals.

"We need to get back to what is going to change kids behavior other than just punishment because I think in the long run, [zero-tolerance policies] aren't going to make a difference," she said.

Schooley initially thought her bill, which was passed and became law in June, would help Zachary. But because he only carried a "dangerous instrument" and not a "deadly weapon" to school -- and was suspended rather than expelled -- the law did not apply to his case.

Schooley now plans to revise the law next legislative session, which doesn't begin until January.

Zachary's case isn't the first time Christina has made headlines.

Last year, fifth-grader Kasia Haughton was suspended for bringing a serrated knife to school to cut a cake. The student faced a possible expulsion until the district reversed its decision and allowed her back in school after determining she never had possession of the knife.

Two years ago, the school board expelled a seventh-grader for using a utility knife from home to cut windows out of a paper house for a class project.

While Christie wants to step out of the spotlight, she does want to be an activist for more flexibility on zero-tolerance policies.

"I hope my voice has given other people a voice," she said.

NOTE: Thanks DelmarvaNow.com this is a great/well written article.

VIA