Lancet Jades
05-21-2004, 05:24 AM
Chichester High officials suspend seven students
http://www.zwire.com/images/spacer.gifhttp://www.zwire.com/images/spacer.gifhttp://www.zwire.com/images/spacer.gifBy WILLIAM BENDER , wbender@delcotimes.com 05/19/2004http://www.zwire.com/images/spacer.gifhttp://www.zwire.com/images/spacer.gifhttp://www.zwire.com/images/spacer.gifA student election at Chichester High School turned ugly last Friday after a candidate for senior vice-president was suspended for trying to launch a write-in campaign. It got downright nasty Monday when sympathetic students decided to show their election-day support for the banned candidate.
Six more students were ultimately suspended for what school officials saw as "insubordination." Some students and parents, in contrast, are calling it a "ridiculous" product of the school’s zero-tolerance policy -- not to mention undemocratic.
Either way, Justin Loretto got to sleep late Tuesday morning. The ninth-grader received a one-day suspension Monday for refusing to remove a makeshift shirt label supporting Eric Kok, an 11th-grade student who was barred from running for senior vice-president based on a disputed election technicality.
"I don’t know why it would have upset them so much," said Loretto, who was lounging around his house Tuesday morning, catching up on his reading.
The school’s student handbook says a candidate for office must have a cumulative grade-point average of 2.0 or higher, according to Kok, whose cumulative GPA is about 2.2. At some point prior to the election, the requirement was apparently raised to 2.5, which made Kok ineligible for the position. (The student handbook is posted on the Chichester School District Web site and states that the minimal cumulative GPA needed to participate in sports and extra-curricular activities is 2.0.)
So Kok tried to run a write-in campaign by hanging a few homemade posters around the school, asking students to write his name on the ballot. School officials responded by confiscating the posters last Friday, escorting Kok off the property and suspending him until after the election.
"I think they just took it way too far. They could have just took the posters and said I can’t hang posters or whatever, but they just had to suspend me on the spot," said Kok, who acknowledged that he has not always been a "model student." Because of his past, Kok believes he was shafted by the school administration.
Principal James Donnelly said Tuesday he had "no comment about any discipline issues that pertain to any students. I can’t comment on that. It’s confidential."
Chichester School District Superintendent Michael Golde was unaware of the situation. "Even if I were, I wouldn’t be allowed to comment," he said.
Because Kok’s name is pronounced "Coke," some teachers may have interpreted the messages as a reference to cocaine. Two of the labels worn by students were: "Free Kok. Join the Movement," and "You Know You Love Kok. Vote Kok."
Some parents say the crackdown on their children was a case of disciplinary overkill and a violation of their freedom of speech. Kok’s parents, Jack and Barbara, are meeting with school officials this afternoon to get to the bottom of the story.
"Some of the students taped signs on their shirts and I think that really rubbed the administration the wrong way. But so what? It’s high school," said Jack Kok. "It seems they take that stuff way too seriously and hide behind the zero-tolerance rule."
Eric Kok took advantage of his suspension Tuesday afternoon to help paint a friend’s house and make some cash on the side. Though heavy-handed, Kok said school officials’ reaction to his supporters was somewhat predictable.
"If (students) rebel like that and support a person who got in trouble," he said, "that makes them really mad, just really peeved."
http://www.zwire.com/images/spacer.gifhttp://www.zwire.com/images/spacer.gifhttp://www.zwire.com/images/spacer.gifBy WILLIAM BENDER , wbender@delcotimes.com 05/19/2004http://www.zwire.com/images/spacer.gifhttp://www.zwire.com/images/spacer.gifhttp://www.zwire.com/images/spacer.gifA student election at Chichester High School turned ugly last Friday after a candidate for senior vice-president was suspended for trying to launch a write-in campaign. It got downright nasty Monday when sympathetic students decided to show their election-day support for the banned candidate.
Six more students were ultimately suspended for what school officials saw as "insubordination." Some students and parents, in contrast, are calling it a "ridiculous" product of the school’s zero-tolerance policy -- not to mention undemocratic.
Either way, Justin Loretto got to sleep late Tuesday morning. The ninth-grader received a one-day suspension Monday for refusing to remove a makeshift shirt label supporting Eric Kok, an 11th-grade student who was barred from running for senior vice-president based on a disputed election technicality.
"I don’t know why it would have upset them so much," said Loretto, who was lounging around his house Tuesday morning, catching up on his reading.
The school’s student handbook says a candidate for office must have a cumulative grade-point average of 2.0 or higher, according to Kok, whose cumulative GPA is about 2.2. At some point prior to the election, the requirement was apparently raised to 2.5, which made Kok ineligible for the position. (The student handbook is posted on the Chichester School District Web site and states that the minimal cumulative GPA needed to participate in sports and extra-curricular activities is 2.0.)
So Kok tried to run a write-in campaign by hanging a few homemade posters around the school, asking students to write his name on the ballot. School officials responded by confiscating the posters last Friday, escorting Kok off the property and suspending him until after the election.
"I think they just took it way too far. They could have just took the posters and said I can’t hang posters or whatever, but they just had to suspend me on the spot," said Kok, who acknowledged that he has not always been a "model student." Because of his past, Kok believes he was shafted by the school administration.
Principal James Donnelly said Tuesday he had "no comment about any discipline issues that pertain to any students. I can’t comment on that. It’s confidential."
Chichester School District Superintendent Michael Golde was unaware of the situation. "Even if I were, I wouldn’t be allowed to comment," he said.
Because Kok’s name is pronounced "Coke," some teachers may have interpreted the messages as a reference to cocaine. Two of the labels worn by students were: "Free Kok. Join the Movement," and "You Know You Love Kok. Vote Kok."
Some parents say the crackdown on their children was a case of disciplinary overkill and a violation of their freedom of speech. Kok’s parents, Jack and Barbara, are meeting with school officials this afternoon to get to the bottom of the story.
"Some of the students taped signs on their shirts and I think that really rubbed the administration the wrong way. But so what? It’s high school," said Jack Kok. "It seems they take that stuff way too seriously and hide behind the zero-tolerance rule."
Eric Kok took advantage of his suspension Tuesday afternoon to help paint a friend’s house and make some cash on the side. Though heavy-handed, Kok said school officials’ reaction to his supporters was somewhat predictable.
"If (students) rebel like that and support a person who got in trouble," he said, "that makes them really mad, just really peeved."