Suicide turns attention to Fairfax discipline procedures

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A suspension, an unraveling and a suicide

Nick Stuban was a football player at W.T. Woodson High School whose story brought to light a discipline system that many Fairfax families call too lengthy, too rigid and too hostile.

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In the Washington area, few systems use school transfers as often as Fairfax does. D.C. schools have moved away from involuntary transfers. In Montgomery County, a majority of students go back to their home schools, said Wayne Whigham, who oversees disciplinary processes. "You want to put the kid back in the community where they feel comfortable, where they have friends, where they have the best chance for success because they are familiar with the surroundings."

There is not extensive research on mandatory transfers, said Dewey Cornell, a University of Virginia education professor who studies school discipline. But research shows that even suspensions, which are temporary, tend to increase academic problems and lead to further behavior problems and higher dropout rates.

Richard Lieberman, a suicide expert at Loyola Marymount University, said that a discipline crisis can be the spark that combines with underlying issues such as depression to develop into suicidal thoughts.

In Fairfax, signs of depression were reported by 29 percent of high school sophomores in 2009 and suicide had been contemplated by 15 percent, according to a county survey.

School officials described Nick's infraction as possession of "an imitation controlled substance" and behavior "incompatible with a k-12 educational environment."

Substance abuse is common among high schoolers. There are no statistics available for the use of JWH-018, but the county survey found that 38 percent had tried marijuana by 12th grade.

The Student Responsibilities and Rights handbook says that a first offender under the influence of cocaine or Ecstasy at school would get five to 10 days of suspension - which would mean no expulsion threat, no hearing process, no school transfer. The same goes for students who possessed alcohol or were drunk.

But Nick Stuban's infraction, even though it involved a legal substance, fell into a more serious disciplinary category.

"It didn't make sense," said Steve Stuban, who said school officials told him they also had not heard of JWH-018. "You have an infraction, you don't know what the substance is and you arbitrarily apply the harshest standard to it."

Scanlan, the hearing officer, said that the same standard is applied to all cases of possessing drugs, controlled substances or imitation substances. That includes even oregano if it is packaged to look like marijuana. Being under the influence is different, she said, because "that student hasn't brought anything on school grounds" that endangers others.

On Nov. 16, Nick pushed his mother's ventilator-equipped wheelchair into the hearing room, accompanied by his father and his mother's nurse. They had requested the file on Nick's case and read through it. But they had not talked to a lawyer, following the advice of a Woodson administrator who Steve Stuban said cautioned against bringing in one because it might create a confrontational climate.