When students fight, schools must react

When students fight, schools must react

Supporters of three girls suspended from Warren Harding High School for fighting seem to think that the punishment is too severe and that the students are being sent the wrong message if justice is not tempered by mercy.

The message the Warren City School District seems to be most interested in sending is that fighting on school grounds will not be tolerated.

In this case, the school district has the better message.

While the district maintains a zero tolerance policy for fighting — and school officials maintain that the policy has been made clear to students — the district’s disciplinary code of conduct includes an opportunity for appeal that conforms to Ohio law and due process requirements.

The girls’ supporters have emphasized that the girls were good students with clean records. “They have really hurt these ladies as far as education,” said The Rev. Frank L. Hearns, pastor of Second Baptist Church.

Superintendent Kathryn Hellweg implied that the girls may have been warned about their behavior prior to the fight. Obviously, without the girls themselves discussing what happened the day of the fight, it is difficult for the public to evaluate who is right and who is wrong. And even if the girls spoke out, the school district would be unable to respond in full because of confidentiality protection that students enjoy.

Clearly, however, it is both the right and the responsibility of school boards to establish tough policies that discourage violence by students against one another or against faculty members. It is the job of administrators to enforce those policies.

Nothing is permanent

Expulsion is no longer as definitive as it sounds. An Ohio school district cannot permanently expel a student; expulsions in Warren last up to 80 days or up to a year, depending on the offense. One-year expulsions apply to violations of firearm or weapons restrictions or bomb threats.

But obviously, even an 80-day expulsion has a serious effect on a student’s education, especially if the student is a senior, as two of these girls are.

Nonetheless, there have been more than 50 other expulsions in Warren schools this school year for fighting, and to make an exception for these three students would hardly seem fair.

No school can afford to be nonchalant about maintaining discipline in its buildings. As long as a school district establishes policies and makes students aware of the consequences for violating those policies, the blame for whatever hardship a student may suffer for violating the rules falls not on the school board or its administrators, but on the student.

If a majority of parents and Warren taxpayers believe that the school district’s code of conduct is too harsh, the case for changing the policy should be presented to the school board through petitions and testimony.

We suspect that most parents would prefer to send their children to a school where fighting isn’t tolerated.