Public commenter says handbook enforcement led to missed graduation and confusing ticketing; asks board to revisit phone policy

At the July 13 meeting Jolene Singleton, speaking from the public comment table, described an incident involving middle-school students who recorded other students without permission on a playground. She told the board three students lost the opportunity to attend graduation, received in-school suspension and were issued disorderly conduct tickets by the resource officer.

Singleton said one of the students did not receive a physical ticket or court-date information and later received a mailed notice indicating a $691 fine due by September 8. She questioned how the city of Elkhorn had not received paperwork for the tickets and asked the board to consider removing or simplifying some handbook language if it will not be enforced consistently.

“I just have a quick thing,” Singleton said before describing the sequence: she urged the board to review whether handbook language on personal communication devices should be revised if the rules are not being followed consistently and to consider whether discipline decisions were handled at the appropriate level or communicated properly by the resource officer.