Hackley Administration Must Carefully Re-evaluate Zero-Tolerance Drug Policy
December 17, 2015
The Hackley community was recently in- formed that two students are not able to continue their education here after a violation of the school’s policy on illegal substances. is news was devastating for not only students, but many faculty members and administrators as well.
The decision was made by the administration based on the fact that Hackley’s rule on illegal substances on-campus is crystal clear and a violation of Hackley’s drug policy as stated in the Upper School Handbook: “Use or possession of illegal drugs will result in required withdrawal or dismissal.” If this rule is not enforced it loses its meaning, and if rules on drug use lose their meaning, then the school arguably leaves itself vulnerable to serious problems with drug use in the student body in the future.
But despite this justification for the decision, the Hackley community still feels much outrage and sorrow. To many in the community, whatever the handbook may say, the disciplinary decision that was made doesn’t feel like justice. While the rule on the books was enforced consistently with precedent, that rule and precedent feels harsh. To many of us, it just no longer feels appropriate to expel two upstanding community members for a first-time marijuana offense. Marijuana, after all, carries no extreme social stigma, and is now legal in multiple states in our union. And like it or not, mild experimentation with drugs and alcohol is a part of going through high school for many kids nationwide.
This is not at all to say that Hackley must tolerate on campus drug use. Every member of the community is safer when we limit the extent of drug use in our school. But the question on the table here is not “did these students deserve to be seriously disciplined,” but “was separation from school and effective expulsion the appropriate punishment for this offense?” Again, while on-campus drug use is serious and must always be punished as such, to many in the community complete separation for a first-time marijuana offense feels cruel; marijuana is, unfortunately, a part of high- school life for many, many people in America. Was effective expulsion really necessary?
This is not a question The Dial is yet prepared to answer; many questions of the efficacy of various disciplinary policies on drugs remain unanswered. But the feeling of indignation and anger we all felt upon hearing of the school’s disciplinary decision suggests that the schools effectively zero-tolerance policy is simply out of line with the Hackley community norms and standards on the issue.
Why does Hackley have this policy? Is it more effective than competing two-strike or “second chance” policies on drugs? Is it deeply rooted in some important school value? Answers to these questions could provide meaningful understanding to the community over the school’s recent decision. But they remain largely unanswered; while the administration has said publicly on several occasions that they believe these policies are best based on the word of certain consultants, there has been no real evidence given by the administration and, most importantly, no open and clear conversation between students, faculty, and administration on the efficacy and value and meaning of the school’s drug policy.
Our school’s motto emblazoned on our school’s crest, Iuncti Iuvamus, means united we help one another. But after smoking marijuana, two students were told that they could no longer be members of this united community that was supposed to support them. While the students involved certainly made an big mistake, the act of removing someone from Hackley’s community should only be taken when it is shown that failure to remove that student could be egregiously harmful to the rest of the Hackley community. It is possible that this condition was met in this instance; perhaps a non zero-tolerance policy would lead to greatly increased drug use. But the reality is, we just don’t know. The administration must provide a frank and straightforward answer on why it’s extremely strict, zero-tolerance policy is necessary, and if it cannot, it must open a dialogue with the rest of the community on what kind of drug policy aligns our values and community goals going forward. Drug policy has the potential to be devastating, as the recent case shows. The onus is on the school to make sure that our community has an open conversation to make sure the policy we have is the right one.