Committee amends and adopts expulsion policy JDE; changes marijuana expulsion language to reflect state law

On Sept. 2 the Policy Committee of the Whole considered and approved revisions to policy JDE, the district’s expulsion policy, including changes to how marijuana possession is handled under state law and clarifications to the firearms/knives/drugs section. Committee members debated language about first offenses, principal discretion and the disciplinary-review process before voting to amend then adopt the policy.

At the start of the item a committee member summarized that the draft reflects a review by the district's outside reviewer (referred to in the meeting as Forethought) and by the district’s legal counsel. The draft replaces language that had required a four-semester expulsion for certain offenses with a two-semester standard to match recent state law. One participant said, “So possession of marijuana is not expulsion, but second is.”