Philadelphia school district accused of violating Gun-Free Schools Act
City and state education officials have defended the Philadelphia School District's limited expulsion of students who bring weapons to schools, dismissing a complaint from a school-safety expert as a misreading of federal law. Jack Stollsteimer, the state's safe-schools advocate, alleged in a four-page memo that the district had routinely violated the federal Gun-Free Schools Act, which mandates a year's expulsion for students caught with firearms on school property. State law extends the policy to apply to all weapons. A complaint has been filed with the U.S. Attorney's Office, and federal officials have been gathering information on the district's expulsion policy in response, but it is not clear whether those inquiries will lead to a formal investigation. The district could lose millions in federal aid if it is found to have violated the federal act, Stollsteimer said. With the district considering a new violence policy, district officials took sharp exception to Stollsteimer's conclusions, saying that the chief executive officer had discretion when it comes to expelling students and, instead of expulsion, typically responded by immediately transferring students caught with weapons to special disciplinary schools. Stollsteimer has alleged that though the law allows the district's chief executive officer to use discretion in individual cases, the district wrongly employs the practice for nearly all students and has expelled few as a result. “The U.S. Department of Education guidelines specifically state that the case-by-case exception is not to be used to circumvent the mandatory expulsion requirement,” he wrote in his Jan. 15 memo to the commission, which was first reported by the Philadelphia Daily News. The district expelled no students last school year and has not expelled any so far this year. In fact, Stollsteimer said, the district has expelled only two of 22 students involved in gun cases in the last three years.
Judy Shopp, the Pennsylvania Department of Education's chief counsel, informed the Safety Advisory Committee—on which she sits—that an “investigation” had been called for. The complaint to the U.S. Attorney's Office was forwarded to the U.S. Department of Education (ED) for consideration, according to Sheila Ballen, a spokeswoman for the Pennsylvania Department of Education. “We're fully cooperating with all the information that the U.S. Department of Education is asking us for,” Ballen said. The U.S. Department of Education declined to comment. Ballen said her department had "the understanding" that the U.S. Department of Education indicated it would need more evidence to launch an investigation. The U.S. Attorney's Office declined to comment. “The superintendent is making the decision that the district would rather help students involved in this ... than leave students out on the street without help or guidance,” Ballen said. School officials also have pointed out that state law requires the district to provide an education to expelled students if parents can't find a suitable alternative within 30 days. The district is skipping that 30-day period by sending students directly to a disciplinary school, district spokesman Fernando Gallard said in an interview in February. “We believe that that is better for the student and better for the community at large,” Gallard said. Sending students to the street would cause more dropouts and failure, he had argued. In a written statement, the district maintained that it complied with the law. Though the district has expelled only 31 students since the 2002-03 school year for “egregious offenses,” it sends thousands of students to disciplinary schools each year and some students end up in juvenile detention, Gallard said. Last school year, 2,132 students were transferred out of schools for a variety of offenses, including weapons violations, he said.
Source: Philadelphia Inquirer, 4/10/08, By Susan Snyder
[Editor’s Note: ED’s guidance on the Gun-Free Schools Act (GFSA) is below. In at least 26 states, the definition of a "persistently dangerous" school under the No Child Left Behind Act turns in part specifically on the number of expulsions for weapons violations. School districts, of course, frequently are criticized for zero tolerance policies, the “school-to-prison pipeline,” and drop-out rates.]
ED guidance on GFSA