As many high school seniors thrill over their college admission offers, Nick Hanna wonders about the effect of his mistakes in Fairfax County. Four Virginia colleges have turned him down, and two have placed him on wait lists.
What exactly will follow his June graduation, Nick doesn’t know. “Everything has changed,” he said.
(SUSAN BIDDLE/FOR THE WASHINGTON POST) - “Everything has changed,” says Nick Hanna, 18, a senior at Marshall High School in Fairfax County. It has been nearly a year since the former Langley student faced disciplinary action.
It has been nearly a year since Nick, then 17, was disciplined after a search of his backpack at Langley High School produced a small device used to smoke marijuana. That alone would have meant a suspension, but when the device tested positive for residue, school officials imposed a second offense that was more serious: drug possession.
Marijuana use is common among high-schoolers across the country, and in Fairfax more than 38 percent of 12th-graders admit to having tried it, according to a county survey.
Fairfax and other districts have long looked for ways to educate students about the dangers of drugs and send a strong message that drugs won’t be tolerated in school. Consequences can be harsh for those who get caught, including those on the brink of college.
Nick was not allowed back at Langley for the final school days of June. He completed his exams after hours, went to a disciplinary hearing in July and received a punitive transfer to another high school for senior year. And for his college applications, he could not get a recommendation from the Langley guidance counselor who knew him best, his family said.
Nick and his father agree that the teen made a mistake and should have faced consequences. But his case shows how disciplinary actions can play out in a highly common class of cases — those involving marijuana — and how the effects can be farther-reaching than may at first be apparent.
Discipline policies in Fairfax have been under fire since the January suicide of Nick Stuban, 15, a football player at W.T. Woodson High School who struggled after he admitted buying a synthetic drug that was legal at the time. His suicide was the second in two years of a Fairfax teenager involved in the disciplinary system.
The deaths have touched off concern among parents and activists, and the school board is in the throes of an effort to revamp policies. Superintendent Jack D. Dale has offered several reform proposals, but two issues expected to fuel debate are how to handle first-time marijuana infractions and the practice of using forced school transfers in discipline cases.
Fairfax officials, who agreed to talk about aspects of the case after the family signed a privacy waiver, say that the school district is not aware of Nick Hanna or other students being adversely affected by school transfers as they apply to college. Transferred students are not allowed to return to their base schools but may e-mail or call teachers and counselors to ask for recommendations, spokesman Paul Regnier said.
Nick’s difficulties come as marijuana possession appears to account for a growing share of serious discipline infractions in Fairfax. Last year, 162 cases went to the hearings office, or 25 percent of the total discipline caseload, Fairfax statistics show. Three years ago, the county had 117 such cases, representing 16 percent of the overall caseload.
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