Fairfax County School Board votes 9 to 2 in favor of reducing some strict disciplinary policies

On Friday, the Fairfax County School Board took a more enlightened position and voted to reduce penalties for possessing marijuana as well as new policies about how parents are notified.

In a 9 to 2 vote, the handbook on student rights and responsibilities was approved in its revised version.

During the next school year, students caught for the first time with a “small” amount of marijuana MAY receive a softer punishment than was the case before, according to The Washington Post. The “second chance” policy will give Fairfax County students an opportunity to attend an alcohol and drug seminar during a portion of their suspension.

As the Post explains, the Fairfax County School Board established a 40-member committee that spent over five months looking over the county’s discipline policies. The committee ended up making 52 recommendations to improve the way the Fairfax County school system applies punishments.

Not surprisingly, however, some of the ‘reform advocates’ are arguing that the new Fairfax County policies do not accurately reflect the recommendations of the 40-member committee. Given the number of interests involved, it would have been unreasonable to expect all parties would be completely or even somewhat satisfied with the eventual end result. According to one committee member, the new policies allow principles “too much leeway” and do not recognize parents’ role in the discipline process.

The new policies do make an important step in the right direction towards correcting some of the draconian disciplinary procedures that so many schools in Virginia follow for such minor offenses as the possession of small amounts of marijuana.

Virginia and the country as a whole have appeared to forget that “kids will be kids,” that young people make mistakes and that each of us learn and have learned from those invaluable mistakes. No one should be held to account for minor offenses by being thrown out of school or unreasonably disciplined.

As I’ve discussed before, the search for perfection, whether it be economic perfection, perfection in the schools, or perfection in our daily lives will always be an elusive and sometimes destructive process and is therefore not a worthy goal worth pursuing. In the school systems, one form of perfection has been the endeavor to root out any and all so-called “misbehavior.” Short of turning schools into prisons, this result will never happen and nor should it.