Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District’s commitment to restorative justice practices has sparked discussions regarding student alcohol and drug use on campuses.
During the June 25 meeting of the district’s Board of Education, the board looked to update Board Policy (BP) and Administrative Regulation (AR), initially broached to properly name and number the BP and AR to align with the California School Boards Association. The current BP and AR were titled "Controlled Substances," with the materials proposed to be moved into existing BP and AR titled "Alcohol and Other Drugs."
Proposed changes to the district’s alcohol and drug policy went further than simple administrative housekeeping, however, as outgoing Director of Student Services Tara Brown presented changes to the policy she felt were a "long time coming" in her final board presentation. This shift would be from "traditional" policies honing in on consequences and punishments for student behavior, to a more restorative justice-based system with "progressively scaled discipline" for alcohol and drug offenses.
At the middle and high school level, the updated policy for a first alcohol or drug offense would replace an automatic three-day suspension with meetings and counseling sessions determined to understand why a student would be using substances. Offenses resulting in meetings does not include selling controlled substances, which results in immediate suspension and mandated expulsion from a campus.
Subsequent offenses, traditionally a five-day suspension, would be replaced by a one-day suspension followed by counselor meetings regarding mental health and drug or alcohol dependency, as well as working on an individualized "action plan." Authorities would still be notified about both the first offense and subsequent offenses.
Brown noted that she has been speaking with district stakeholders for 18 months on policy revisions, with these revisions being called "student-centered." She added that in interviewing students who were suspended for alcohol and drugs, she saw that they would continue to use substances during the suspension while missing classroom time, a double-whammy she wishes to prevent.
"Instead of just suspending them for three days, we need to find out why the student is using drugs in the first place," Brown said. "Suspending them for three days off-campus like we were doing wasn’t addressing the problem, it was addressing the symptoms that we were seeing. We need to address the problem so that the student doesn’t continue to use drugs."
Brown and her team on the subject, including Director of Restorative Practices Rob Howard and Social-Emotional Learning Teacher Kimberly Marshall, wanted to work towards "more of a restorative community" in the district that will keep students in the classroom. This priority of equity applies to the "extremely high" suspension rates with student groups like Black, special needs, homeless and foster youth students; aligning with goals of increased academic achievement for these groups in the district Local Control and Accountability Plan (LCAP).
"When a student is caught in possession of drugs or alcohol, instead of it being a ‘gotcha’ moment, (we’re) shifting it towards a ‘we got you,’ a caring moment where they can learn lessons, they can grow and they can mature," Howard said.
The team stressed that they were "in no way tolerating" drug and alcohol-related behaviors, but that a suspension-heavy climate was not the answer, something several board members agreed with, including Richard Tahvildaran-Jesswein who said that it’s best to keep students around when dealing with non-violent offenses.
"Asking a child to leave the building, leave, and think they’ll be able to come back and participate in any way, it’s not working," Board Vice President Jon Kean added.
While Kean agreed with pivoting away from heavy suspensions, he remained concerned that the revised system would give first-offense students "one free pass" to use.
"We want to get to the root of the problem, we want to help the students that seriously need help, but we also don’t want to create a school district where everyone gets a free pass … I think we need to get away from this cycle of endless suspensions and keep kids in school, but I also believe that we need to live in a society where there are consequences to our actions," Kean said.
The board will return to discuss the matter further this month, with district Assistant Superintendent Dr. Mark Kelly hoping for an agreed-upon policy by the start of the upcoming school year. While Boardmember Maria Leon-Vasquez agreed that a policy shift is a "long time coming," she added that she wants to see more "buy-in" from stakeholders before taking any action.
Several of her constituents agreed, with Boardmember Laurie Lieberman saying the public may be surprised by the shift because of not knowing what "the other ways" of handling offenses are. Board President Jennifer Smith pointed to how teachers might respond to this change, wanting to make sure there are "enough" resources on every campus to deal with individualized meetings and counseling.
