By Terry Witt – Spotlight Senior Reporter

Colored bandanas associated with gang activity and jeans designed with holes that are more revealing than most short pants or skirts are banned in Levy County public schools next year.

Levy County School Board members voted Tuesday to adopt those changes and others in the Code of Student Conduct and Student Rights and Responsibilities.

Every student will receive the 56-page booklet and must sign for it.

Assistant Superintendent John Lott said certain colored bandanas are associated with gangs.

“That’s how they identify who is in the gang, by the color of their bandana,” he said. “I’m not saying these kids are necessarily in a gang, but that’s how they identify, so they have bandana’s hanging out a back pocket.” Or they may wear the bandana.

Lott said one of the things school administrators reported seeing were jeans with holes in the fabric above fingertip length. When a student lowers their hand to thigh level, the bottom of their short pants and skirts can’t be any higher than the tip of their fingers. Under the revised policy, the holes in Jeans must meet the same standard – the holes can’t be higher than fingertip length.

The rule says all body parts must be covered and underwear and undergarments can’t be exposed to public view in an “indecent or vulgar manner.”

A new state statute also says students may bring over the counter sunscreen products to school or sunscreen prescribed by a doctor.

OPEN DEFIANCE

Students can be punished for refusing to participate in classroom assignments or activities. The violation is considered open defiance. The request for schools to have more options for dealing with defiant students came from one school.

“Even though it came from one of our schools, all our schools were applauding the language,” Lott said.

Lott said he doesn’t think the first violation would result in out of school suspension, but repeated incidents of open defiance would be considered repeated misconduct and “eventually” could result in suspension.

STUDENT SUSPENSION POLICY MODIFIED 

Students suspended from school for a semester and sent to an alternative school setting can return to the regular school setting before the semester is finished under a revised policy.

Lott said if the district determined that it was in the best interests of the student and the school system, and the school board approved it, the suspended student could return after 18 weeks, which is less than a semester.

Lott said students in an alternative learning atmosphere will use software to further their education until their return to regular classes, but district administrators discovered that the academic transition back to a brick and mortar school was more difficult than in the past. That’s because students were learning from a software package rather than attending classes.

Superintendent Jeff Edison said alternative school students have a certified teacher present when they are learning on software.

VIOLENT OR DISRUPTIVE STUDENTS

The state’s Safe Schools Act says violent or disruptive students will be assigned to an alternative educational program or referred to mental health services identified by the school district

Any student who brings a firearm or weapon to school or who is determined to have made a threat or a false report must be referred to mental health services identified by the school district for evaluation or treatment, according to Lott.
Selling drugs on campus, arson, assault, and battery of school employees, bomb threats or explosions, false fire alarms or the “willful and/or malicious act of inciting, leading, or participating in any disruption or disturbance that interferes” with school operations would fall into the category of violent or disruptive students.

The school district currently has no mental health counselors or psychologists on staff.

Edison said there were two job descriptions included in the agenda for mental health counselors or psychologists. The district has guidance counselors at Levy County schools that have some training in mental health issues.

“There are certain aspects to counseling they can provide, but when it comes to therapy, that’s not one of them,” Edison.
The Florida Legislature has provided the district with $214,000 to hire the necessary counselors and/or psychologists. School psychologists are far more expensive than mental health counselors.

CORPORAL PUNISHMENT – SPANKING

Corporal punishment, also known as spanking or paddling, is allowed in Levy County schools. Principals are required to prepare guidelines for administering corporal punishment. If corporal punishment is administered without the express approval of the principal, a written record of each instance will be forwarded to the principal showing the student’s name, the reason for corporal punishment, the person administering the punishment, name of adult witness and date and time it occurred.

Punishment must never be “unduly severe or degrading in nature” and can’t be administered in the presence of other students. Corporal punishment can never be administered to a child known to be under medical treatment for an emotional disability or to a child suffering from a physical condition that could cause their death.

Parents must be notified verbally or in writing when corporal punishment is used.

“Parents who object to corporal punishment shall inform the principal in writing. In such cases, the principal shall provide alternate forms of punishment, which may include but are not limited to time-out rooms, in-school suspension student peer review, parental involvement and other forms of positive reinforcement, such as classes on appropriate classroom behavior,” the policy states.

School Board member Paige Brookins asked how often corporal punishment is used.

Lott said it is used most often in elementary schools but he said he had no statistics on how often it is used.
“But it is done,” he said.

Edison issued a word of caution about corporal punishment.

“I will tell you right now, you can personally be held liable,” Edison said of corporal punishment. “You put your house on the line.”

NEW POLICIES NOT IN CODE OF CONDUCT

VALEDICTORIAN-SALUTATORIAN

The school district will no longer declare a valedictorian and salutatorian by using guidelines set by the Florida Academy of Scholars GPA system. Lott said if there is a tie for salutatorian or valedictorian there will be a co-salutatorian or co-valedictorian.

HOMELESS STUDENTS

Students who are homeless and living within the county or school district shall have equal access to the same “free, appropriate public education, including public preschool education,” as provided to other children and youths. The homeless students must be afforded the same opportunities to excel academically and participate in extracurricular activities and should not be stigmatized or segregated on the basis of their homeless status.

Photo by Terry Witt: School Board Attorney David Delaney responds to a question from Spotlight as board members Chris Cowart, Paige Brookins, Rick Turner, Brad Etheridge and Cameron Asbell listen to his comments.

Regular Meeting of School Board of Levy County June 11, 2018
Posted June 12, 2018