Westtown is one of a relative handful of schools that have begun to rethink their “zero tolerance” policies toward substance abuse. The policies, which began coming into fashion around 1990, have sustained ridicule over the absurd outcomes they occasionally lead to, such as the suspension of a West Virginia seventh grader for sharing cough drops with a classmate. No one keeps statistics on how many schools have zero-tolerance policies, and there’s no uniform definition; an automatic expulsion for a first drug offense, which is what many people probably assume it means, appears to be fairly rare anyway. But even suspension is now being questioned, on the grounds of both fairness and efficacy. A policy meant to protect the school may not be in the best interests of the larger society, or the offender himself. “If a child leaves school, where does he go?” wonders child psychiatrist Elizabeth Berger, author of “Raising Children With Character.” “He goes somewhere and becomes someone else’s problem.” Even some teachers are beginning to feel uncomfortable with the one-strike policies, says Kyle Pruett, a child and adolescent psychiatrist at Yale University, who consults with many schools. “They begin to feel their hands are tied. It cuts out the ability to judge each circumstance on its own merits.”
The argument in favor of a tough, uniform code of drug penalties hasn’t changed: it sends a strong, unambiguous message to students. That’s been the experience at Benedictine High School in Richmond, Va., a Roman Catholic military academy, which started random drug testing for all students (and faculty and staff) last year. Nick Cornwell, a junior, says he supports the policy because it makes it easier for students to turn down drugs, since they can plausibly claim to be afraid of being caught. But even here, a student who flunks a drug test once is offered counseling and a second chance; expulsion is mandatory only after a second offense. Like many schools, Benedictine is drawing a distinction between the troubled kid, the drug abuser who may progress to dealing and a kid who may experiment once with a joint but isn’t going to let it ruin his life. “Most kids are going to experiment at some level,” says Harvard University child psychiatrist Timothy Wilens. “If experimentation is the norm, where do you draw the line? Who will be left?”
