Selling drugs at school

Scenario

Alexa is 17 years old and she lives with her mother as well as her little brother who is 3 years old. Her mother has been struggling financially ever since her husband left her and her two kids. Alexa is stressed out about her current living situation; she has tried to find a job to help out her mother with bill payments.  Unfortunately, she has not been able to keep a job due to some issues she is having with depression and anxiety.

Alexa has turned to other means of making money. Alexa began hanging out with a new crowd of friends and these friends have had some negative influences on her. At their suggestion, Alexa started dealing and selling around her neighborhood, as well as at school. Her ‘new friends’ have convinced her that selling drugs is a quicker and easier way for her to make money for her family.

If Alexa is selling drugs at school, what kind of trouble could she get into with school?

The Law: School Suspensions and Expulsions

If Alexa is dealing and selling drugs at school, she will face a mandatory suspension. According to a provincial law called the Education Act, selling drugs at school is such an incident where Alexa’s principal shall suspend her. Suspension from school can be anywhere from one school day to 20 school days. During this time, Alexa will not be able to attend class or participate in any school-related activities, such as field trips or sports games. If her suspension is for five days or more, she must attend a suspended students program.  If suspension occurs, her principal will follow up with a written notice of suspension stating why she is being and for how long the suspension will last, information about the right to appeal and whether they are considering expulsion.

Importantly,her principal may also have to notify the police about Alexa’s behavior.

Expulsion is a possible and more serious repercussion of selling drugs at school. If Alexa is suspended for 20 days, then her principal must consider whether to seek an expulsion.  In doing this, he or she will conduct an investigation for expulsion following the mandatory suspension. Until investigation, Alexa will be suspended for 20 days and she will be referred to a suspended students program which she will have to attend during investigation. Following the investigation if the Principal is recommending an expulsion then an expulsion hearing will occur where a committee of school board trustees will make the final decision about whether or not to expel her. At the expulsion hearing, the committee will hear from both the principal and the student, as well as any witnesses that either the principal or the student call.  The principal will likely have a lawyer and the student also has the right to have a lawyer present at the hearing.

The school board is required to take into account any special circumstances Alexa may have when determining whether she should be expelled, such as her disciplinary history at school, her academic and attendance record and whether she has a disability that contributed to the misconduct.

Expulsion means that Alexa can not attend school or any school-related activities.

There are two types of expulsions: She may be expelled only from the school she was attending or she may be expelled from all schools in her school board district. If she is expelled from her school only then she will be placed at a different school.  If she is expelled from all schools in the board then she will be assigned to an expelled students program, which she must complete before returning to a different school.

This expulsion will be recorded in Alexa’s Ontario Student Record and other schools will have access to this information. Some consequences of an expulsion include falling behind in classes, not earning her expected credits, being viewed differently by her teachers and peers and not graduate on time with her classmates. 

For more information on school suspensions, see: http://jfcy.org/PDFs/Suspensionseptember2012.pdf

For more information on school expulsions, see:

http://jfcy.org/PDFs/ExpulsionSeptember2012.pdf

If you are a young person attending a publicly-funded school in Ontario and you are facing a suspension or expulsion, you can call JFCY at 416.920.1633 or 1.866.999.5329 to speak with a lawyer.

The scenario for this post was written by Deqa Abdi, a JFCY volunteer on the PLE Team.  The legal info was written by Lauren Grossman, a first-year law student at U of T who is volunteering at JFCY through her law school’s Pro Bono Students Canada program. All info was reviewed by a JFCY staff lawyer.

Skipping school: consequences?

It was a warm Friday afternoon in June, and all of the students at St. Charles elementary school headed to the playground for their second recess of the day.

"Ah, it's so nice outside," exclaimed Tom, an eighth-grader at the school. He and his friend, David, were the first ones out the door.

"Too bad we're stuck at school." David responded. "It would be a perfect day to go to the Water Park at Sunny Side Bay."

Photo from Ontario Place website:  http://www.ontarioplace.com/waterpark 

 
Tom turned to David with an excited look on his face. "Hey, what if we just took the day off from school? We can go on all the water slides we want! What do you say?"

"Take the day off...you mean...skip school?" David asked.

"Yea, it would be amazing!" Tom responded. "We'd have an early start to the weekend. Besides, I don't think our teacher would even mind. It's the second last Friday before school ends. She knows that none of us really want to be here."

David looked uncertain. He was worried about the consequences of skipping school. After pausing for a few seconds, he finally spoke, "Okay, fine let's do it. I really hope we don't get in serious trouble for this."

"We won't," Tom remarked. "Everything will be just fine, trust me."

The two boys quickly hopped the fence that surrounded their school yard. They headed towards a bus stop at the end of the street.

What are the legal consequences for skipping school?

The Education Act is the Ontario law that covers education issues, including attendance.  It requires everyone over the age of six to attend school until they graduate or reach age 18.  This doesn’t just mean registering in school – it means actually going, every single day that school is in session!

What if you are sick? Or you have a religious holiday? Or your parents have decided to home school you?  Are you breaking the law?  The answer is no.  You can be excused from attendance at school for any of those reasons, and you are also excused from attendance at school if you are suspended or expelled.

But aside from exceptions like these, you are required to go to school every day.  If David and Tom don’t go to school, they are breaking the law in Ontario.  The school attendance counselor will contact their parents or guardians to let them know that David and Tom weren’t at school that day.  The Education Act makes it a parent or guardian’s responsibility to make sure that students go to school if the law requires it.  If a parent neglects or refuses to fulfill this responsibility, they can be fined up to $200.

David will probably not receive a very serious punishment for skipping school one time.  His parents will find out, and he might receive a consequence from them at home or feel that they trust him less.  His school will probably give him a consequence, too, like a detention.  However, if David skips school on a regular basis, the consequences will become more serious – he could even be charged with an offence under the Provincial Offences Act.

To learn more about mandatory school attendance, see sections 25, 26, 30, and 31 of the Education Act.

The scenario was written by JFCY PLE Team volunteer Stefan Venier. Legal info was written by Leora Jackson, a U of T law student and JFCY volunteer.  Reviewed by JFCY. 

New Bullying Law

The Ontario government has passed the Accepting Schools Act, a new bullying law that aims to better protect students from bullying in publicly funded schools.

One important part of the law is that now all schools must allow students to form Gay-Straight-Alliances (GSAs), groups that are geared towards fighting homophobia and trans-phobia in schools as well as supporting students who may be dealing with issues of coming out and other challenges and triumphs related to their sexual and/or gender identity.

JFCY is pleased with this new law.  All students have the right to feel safe and supported in school.

To read Bill 13 click here.

On a related note, last week JFCY participated in the LGBTQ Youth Suicide Prevention Summit, a two day conference geared towards developing a strategy to address the high numbers of suicidality among queer and trans youth..  The value and importance of GSAs was part of these discussions.  For more info,  click here.

For more on GSAs click here!

The Right to Attend School

Want to learn more about the rights of young people to attend school?  Check out our pamphlet here.

Comic by PLE Team volunteer Diana Rozo.

In the news: the Child Advocacy Project

Check out this Toronto Star article on the Child Advocacy Project (CAP).  CAP, a program run by Pro Bono Law Ontario, matches volunteer lawyers with children and families experiencing legal issues at school. The free lawyers provide assistance with suspensions, expulsions, special education, etc.

JFCY is happy to work quite closely with CAP; we provide training on education law to the volunteer lawyers.

For more info on CAP, check out their website: http://www.childadvocacy.ca/