Students at Moorestown High School are upset with their school's revised drug policy. As of the March 20th decision to revise it, people are constantly turned off to the new revisions, mainly because of the policy's new ability to discipline students for events that occur outside of school. Students and board members alike dislike the new revisions because of their far-reaching tendency. Are these people's feelings justified?
When voting for the policy revisions, the Board agreed with a 7-2 vote. The two members of the board who voted against the policy change were Dr. Richard Kaye and A.J. Kreimer. Both disagreed with the policy's including incidents that occur outside of the school.
“I believe in its current form, the policy is more broad and far-reaching than I feel comfortable with. I believe incidents, which occur outside of school, that have no connection in any way to the schools or pose a disruption to the teaching process or school day should be regulated if warranted by either parents and/or the police. Although state laws allow for such intervention, I believe our mission, as a school district should be to rid the schools of drugs and alcohol for the safety of our children. I do not feel we as a district should be extending our reach beyond this purpose and can think of a number of scenario's which this policy would do just that,” Kaye said.
Kaye's doubts about the policy's covering incidents outside of school seem to be present in the student body as well. “I don't think it's right that the school can punish us for things that happen outside of school,” said junior and exchange student Gil Duarte Villela Neto from Moorestown High. “I thought they needed to change the policy, because the amount of time you were suspended for stealing French fries and snorting coke in the bathrooms was the same. But now, I think the punishment is way too drastic,” said Dave Servodidio a sophomore at Moorestown High.
On Monday March 19, drug related incident took place at Moorestown High School; this made two in the current school year. This last incident really made up the board's mind about updating the school's drug policy, so the board met on Tuesday the 20th of March to vote on updating the policy with multiple revisions. They believe that these revisions will make the policy more watertight and keep the students safer and less prone to using drugs and alcohol, but is this really the case?
This newly revised policy contains a larger list of illicit substances and guidelines. The list expanded to include inhalants, alcohol, and steroids. Also, students can't take prescription drugs without first registering them with the school nurse. The punishment for drug users in the old policy was usually 5 days suspension, however, now it has been lengthened to 10 days suspension and counseling. The punishment also includes a 45-day banning of all extracurricular activities. A new addition is that the policy now deals with, under certain circumstances, incidents that occur outside of school.
It seems that the new drug policy has some students questioning its validity, but there is one reoccurring issue with all of the students: the drug policy's capability of interfering with the students outside of school. Is it right for the school to be able to punish students for incidents that take place outside of school? This part of the revisions seems to cause the most conflict, and it may cause some problems for the school in the future, but for now, the new policy seems to be doing it's job and deterring any students from using drugs and alcohol on school grounds.
