Copyright 2000 St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Inc.
St.
Louis Post-Dispatch
January 11, 2000, Tuesday, FIVE STAR LIFT
EDITION
SECTION: ST. CHARLES COUNTY POST, Pg. 1
LENGTH: 555 words
HEADLINE:
ASHCROFT BILL WILL ADDRESS DISCIPLINE "DOUBLE STANDARD";
SENATOR WANTS
TOUGHER RULES FOR STUDENTS WHO HAVE DISABILITIES
BYLINE: Aisha Sultan; Of The St. Charles County Post
BODY:
Sen. John Ashcroft plans to refile
legislation this year ending what he calls a "double standard" in school
discipline.
He spoke with parents, educators and students at Hawthorn
Elementary School in St. Peters on Monday.
Ashcroft, R-Mo., wants to
amend the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act
so that school officials can suspend or expel special-education students who
threaten to carry, possess or use a weapon or actually bring a weapon to school.
This includes oral threats to kill someone. Currently, if a student's disability
is determined to be the cause of an infraction, the student can be suspended for
up to 45 days, but the district remains responsible for providing a modified
education to the child. Under Ashcroft's amendment, the district would not be
responsible for educating any student it chooses to expel or suspend.
"A
safe and orderly learning environment is absolutely critical to our children's
success in school," Ashcroft said at the St. Peters elementary school.
Bernard DuBray, superintendent of the Fort Zumwalt District, listened
and fully supported the senator's proposal.
"It sends a good message to
all students," he said. Ed Katcher, superintendent in Orchard Farm, agreed. "The
way to become a good and prod uctive citizen is to be accountable," Katcher
said.
He said many supertindents feel as if their hands are tied when it
comes to disciplining students with disabilities. He questions whether
disabilities such as behavior disorder are "really a handicapping situation or
is it just bad behavior?"
Disability-rights advocates warn that the
proposal would cause more problems than it tries to solve. A "hardened attitude"
exists to want to ignore diagnosed disabilities.
"You don't teach them
accountability by expelling them from school," said Ceil Callahan, director of
advocacy for Missouri Protection and Advocacy Services. "You don't teach them at
all."
She said some children with disabilities, such as the mentally
retarded, don't understand the meaning of threatening behavior.
"Frankly, education is a preventive strategy for dangerous behavior.
Expelling students with those behaviors would be counterproductive to that
prevention."
But Katcher, who focuses attention on helping at-risk
children, says local officials should be allowed to use common sense.
"I
do want to be flexible. I want to be compassionate," he said. There are cases in
which special needs students are allowed back into classrooms after violent
outbursts, area superintendents said. A prepared statement from Ashcroft's
office pointed out that in Missouri, 85 percent of students are not disabled and
face immediate suspension or expulsion for weapons at school. If the rule
violation is determined to be unrelated to a special needs student's disability,
the student is disciplined in the same manner that a regular-education student
would be.
Callahan says she worries that the amendment would be used as
a loophole for schools to "throw out" troubled disabled students without any
responsibility for educating them.
Ashcroft filed the same legislation
in Congress last year, but it died in committee. Matt Morrow, a spokesman for
the senator, said he expects the amendment will be acted upon this year because
Ashcroft will be pushing for it.
LOAD-DATE: January 11, 2000 
