Every year, there is a handful of students in the district that are expelled for a variety of reasons. Just like any school district, Pleasanton has to deal with student behavior problems and try to do its best to help struggling students get back on track.
This year 30 students were expelled from Pleasanton schools. Of that number, 23 were high school students and seven were middle school students. Both high schools usually expel an equal number of students, said Rich Puppione, director of pupil services, adding that the expulsions are fairly consistent at 25-30 per year.
There are many behaviors that could result in expulsion, such as bringing weapons or firearms on campus, violence directed at students or staff, stealing, and causing property damage. The most common cause for expulsion is the use, possession and selling of drugs and alcohol on campus, Puppione said.
“Anything you can get suspended for you can also get expelled for,” Puppione said. “It’s up to the principal at the school site to decide whether to move for expulsion or just suspend, except in cases where expulsion is mandatory.”
When a principal moves to expel, the student is reviewed before a panel of three administrators from schools in the district other than the one the student currently attends.
“We also try not to get administrators from the elementary or middle school the student went to so the panel is unbiased,” Puppione said. The student and the school present their cases, and the panel comes up with a recommendation for the board of trustees. In order to recommend expulsion, the panel has to determine that other means of correction are not feasible to bring about proper conduct or, if due to the nature of the violation, the presence of the student on campus is viewed as dangerous. The recommendation then goes to the board of trustees who vote on the next action.
“The only people who really have jurisdiction to expel are the trustees,” Puppione said.
While the trustees make the final decision, they rarely go against the recommendation of the board, said Trustee Kris Weaver.
“The discipline policies are pretty clear-cut,” Weaver said. “Sometimes we will get someone that has a long laundry list, and if they have a long laundry list and then do something else, there’s no question. If anything, the question is why haven’t we seen the student earlier, but certainly it’s the desire of many administrators to try to work with kids because they want to keep them in the system.”
Trustee Pat Kernan agreed, saying the board is “pretty stringent.”
“We try to be supportive of the teachers and faculties and try to defer to site recommendations as much as possible,” he said.
Where a student goes once he or she has been expelled depends on the nature of the infraction, Puppione said. In cases where a student brought a weapon or explosive to school or was selling drugs, things that would put a student in juvenile hall, the student is sent to the Hayward Court School. There is also a Hayward Community School for expelled students, and both facilities are run by the Alameda County Office of Education. Students with less serious infractions are usually referred to Village Continuation High School or could possibly home school.
The district is very well connected to the two Hayward facilities, Puppione said.
“I go to a meeting about every other month at the Alameda County Office of Education on alternative programs and know all the people in those schools,” he said. “When we need to transfer kids in, I will go with the family to enroll.”
The schools focus mostly on remedial work because many of the students enrolled had serious attendance issues in the past, but they do also use a literature-based program to impart character education, as well.
Once a student has been expelled, that does not mean their career in the Pleasanton school district is over. It is possible for students to get reinstated, Puppione said, and it actually happens quite frequently. But getting reinstated is no easy matter. When a student is first expelled, the board gives the student a list a requirements they must meet by the end of the year. This list can include completing 100 hours of community service, enrolling in counseling services which Pupil Services pays for, maintaining a grade point average of a “C” or higher, maintaining good attendance, and no behavior problems. Recently, the trustees have been adding a requirement for parents to attend “Changing Adolescent Behaviors,” a class through the Adult Education and the Pleasanton Police Department.
“A lot of times we will recommend the parent go to the class or say the student’s placement will be different if the parent chooses to go to this class,” Weaver explained. “We have just had excellent results. Parents who wouldn’t have gone otherwise went, and it has been life changing for the student, the parents, for everybody.”
For a student to be reinstated, it once again is up to a vote by the trustees. If reinstated, the expulsion will be expunged from the student’s transcript, and the student can return to the school he or she was expelled from, which Puppione said is a great motivator.
“A lot of kids when they are expelled have hit rock bottom, and we’re really doing them a favor by saying, ‘Get your life in order and do these things,'” Weaver said. “It’s exciting when I see kids at graduation who have really turned it around. That’s the positive side. I think for many of these students, if we had let them stay where they were they wouldn’t be nearly as successful now.”
Kernan agreed, saying the ultimate goal is to get students back on track.
“We try to bring in all the resources we can because the ultimate goal is to rehabilitate the child,” he said.
