TUSD student conduct rules on drugs, sex up for changes

Tucson Unified School District is considering revisions to its student code of conduct that would, in part, make sharing drugs across all grades a lesser violation and also lower the offense level for sexual harassment with contact and indecent exposure at elementary schools.

An initial draft of the proposed changes presented at the governing board Tuesday shows that illicit drug share would drop to a level 4 offense, from the current level 5 which could result in expulsion. The lower level gives school authorities more leeway in administering consequences.

That was the heart of making that adjustment, said TUSD Student Relations Director Anna Schwartz Warmbrand.

“Sharing fentanyl is much more serious in terms of the physical impact than you may have from a marijuana cartridge,” she said.

Use of Juul settlement award money was also considered, Schwartz Warmbrand said.

“(The committee thought about) how we can support our kids using that settlement money and what it can do.”

Meanwhile, sexual harassment with contact and indecent exposure in the district’s elementary schools would each be lowered to level 3. The current student code of conduct has these offenses both listed as level 4 offenses.

Like the change for sharing drugs, lowering the violation level would lend to more flexibility in punishment for elementary students.

The current TUSD code of conduct‘s definition of indecent exposure includes these behaviors: “Public urination, streaking, masturbation, ‘peeping tom’ (including taking photos or videotaping), exposing another student’s private parts, or engaging in intercourse or oral sex.”

This change would meet, by law, what the district is able to suspend for.

The levels of violations, 1 through 5, are paired with different levels of consequences. Those exclusionary consequences range from putting the student in a different environment or program to expulsion.

With the revisions, should they be approved, illicit drug sharing could still result in out-of-school suspension or expulsion.

The flexibility of this level decrease helps enable administrators to make a judgment call. Schwartz Warmbrand noted that a couple students sharing a marijuana cartridge in a school restroom is different than students being caught selling drugs to other students.

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If the elementary-level changes are passed, both offenses would be eligible for exclusionary consequences, as defined by the code of conduct as the “removal of a student from classroom instruction for longer than thirty minutes or longer than one class period.”

The code of conduct states that consequences that remove students from the classroom are utilized as last resorts, should classroom-level interventions not prove effective. The seriousness of the offense is also considered.

Administrators, teachers and other staff members were part of the group who had a say in the revisions.

The stakeholder committee was split almost evenly as to whether they supported or did not support the illicit drug share revision.

That was not the case for the two sexually-charged elementary offenses. Most of the stakeholders responding said they supported lowering the offenses from a 4 to a 3.

The proposed revisions also add a new violation, “school interruption,” which would be introduced as a level 4 offense. School interruption entails a student intentionally using words or actions to place students, staff and guests in fear of harm, but not amounting to a threat.

An example is a student expressing, “I wish everyone here would just die.” Other examples are pulling a fire alarm with intent to disrupt and posting an image on social media depicting a student with firearms or simulated firearms, in view of other students.

The latter was the catalyst for a brawl at Tucson High Magnet School in September. The incident resulted in the arrest of six students and injured one THMS employee.

A pool of more than one thousand TUSD students took part in drafting changes less than a year ago. The changes were held to get opinions of younger students later on, Schwartz Warmbrand said.

The first draft was an information item at Tuesday’s governing board meeting. It could be revisited as soon as the board’s June meeting.

Should the TUSD Governing Board approve changes to the student code of conduct, they would be effective beginning in the 2024-25 school year.