Schools used to embrace the idea of zero-tolerance when it came to drugs, Yavapai County School Superintendent Tim Carter said last week, but times are changing.
That’s not to say that illicit substances aren’t a problem, Carter said.
It’s more that the schools are looking at each situation that arises to find the best solution both for the student and the school.
Carter was speaking to a meeting of members of MATForce, the Yavapai County coalition originally created to end methamphetamine abuse, at a Thursday, March 26, meeting linked between Prescott and Cottonwood.
Carter said it’s not just a problem in schools.
“It’s a community problem,” Carter said.
That is to say, if there are drugs in the community, there are likely drugs on any given campus, according to Carter.
With 102 school campuses under his jurisdiction, Carter said that it’s impossible to compare any one school to another.
Zero-tolerance was something that took hold in the early 1980s and continued into the 1990s, Carter said.
Any sort of drugs or drug paraphernalia found would result automatically in long-term suspension or expulsion, Carter said.
“They would have you arrested and boot your butt out of there,” Carter said. “Things have changed a lot.”
To read the full story, see the Wednesday, April 1, edition of the Cottonwood Journal Extra.
