Schools add to weapons rules

Spokane schools have expanded their definition of weapon to include just about everything.

Specifically: “Items that are used as weapons, or in a threatening manner, that are not legally defined as dangerous weapons.”

That is the wording the Spokane Public Schools board of directors adopted Wednesday to expand the policy related to student discipline.

Previously, there were 22 specific categories under which a student could be disciplined – including behavior such as harassment, gambling, fighting, assault, possession of a dangerous weapon. Now there is a 23rd category: “Weapons, other.”

School officials said the intent of the change was to help them track safety incidents according to state standards. But a Spokane community-based rights group is concerned that the law may give the school district too much power.

Nancy Stowell, associate superintendent of teaching and learning services, said that when the state compiles student safety incidents it includes a category for “weapons, other.”

“We just want to make sure we can cover ourselves so we’re not limited in the definition of dangerous weapons,” Stowell said.

If a student were to make a threat with a pencil, it’s not likely the incident would fall under the “weapons, other” category, Stowell said.

“It would be for any weapon that was brought to school that was deemed a weapon,” Stowell said. “You could bring a pretty good size knife that didn’t fit the characteristics of a dangerous weapon.”

The director of the Center for Justice, Breean Beggs, said the policy change may make more trouble than it cures.

“The rule is so overbroad that it gives unlimited discretion to the school to kick someone out anytime they want,” Beggs said. “Laws get thrown out regularly for being overly broad.”

As he understands the code change, it appears that anything could be potentially described as a weapon by a school administrator. Should that happen, students don’t usually have the resources to obtain legal representation and parents rarely challenge school policy, Beggs said.

“If their student is already in trouble, they don’t want to brand them a troublemaker,” he said.

For the past several years, schools nationally have sought more restrictive laws in the name of student safety, Beggs said. Yet, on a national scale, statistics show that school violence has gone way down, he said.

“Anytime you adopt a policy that’s overbroad and vague it just tears away at the fabric of our democracy in our society especially when you do it in school where you teach democracy,” Beggs said.

Board president Barb Richardson said the policy change will really help back up principals who are dealing with students and making judgment calls on a daily basis.

“It’s too bad we even have to address it, but we do. (The new policy) is there for the protection and safety of our staff and students, which is one of our paramount concerns,” Richardson said. “There are occasions where kids and families will challenge a decision that’s been made at the school. This will assist them in helping clarify weapons don’t belong in school.”

Under current state law, slingshots and some knives are not considered dangerous weapons, Richardson said.

If a student feels they’ve been wrongly disciplined, there are clear district guidelines that parents can follow, she said.

“You don’t have to hire a lawyer and you don’t have to use the court system to get back into school,” Richardson said.

Denise Fitch, administrator for the Washington state school safety center at the office of superintendent of public instruction in Olympia, said she considers Spokane Public Schools policy change as a clarification in policy. Clear policies will help administrators do their jobs better, she said.

“It’s not just clarity for the school, it’s clarity in reporting,” Fitch said. “I know there are people out there who will say this is way over the edge. The bottom line is everyone wants their kids to be safe at school.”

Fitch said it’s a complex issue. At times, policies do challenge administrators.

In January 2004, three grade-school students were suspended from Bemiss Elementary School in Spokane for bringing to school small toy guns from a GI Joe action figure. Toys guns are not allowed in schools. The boys were playing with them at their lunch table. School officials told The Spokesman-Review that any threatening gesture violated the schools policy, and at least one boy admitted to aiming the toy at another child.