Page 10-Friday, May 18, 1979-The Michigan Daily
A2 schools review
old discipline policy
By ELEONORA DI LISCIA are moving in the direction of not
In an attempt to deal with the relying as heavily on suspensions. They
problems of excessive suspension use are aug ng oe remedie for thoe
as a disciplinary action, the Ann Arbor The question of how long a student
School Board Wednesday night con- may be suspende before a hearing oc-
sidered a revised discipline policy curs caused dispute among board
submitted by a subcommittee. members. The new policy states the
"Our concerns were we felt suspen- hearing must take place within three
sion was being used too often as a days "because you might penalize an
punishment," said subcommittee innocent student by a week suspen-
member Kathleen Dannemiller. "We ,d
suggested suspensions not be used as a aion,"asaid Weinhold. However, there
first remedy and encouraged people to are problemaswith calling a hearing in
use other alternatives. Our belief is time, auch as difficulty in getting
suspension was counter to the materiala together, or if delaya are
educational process." requested.
THE SUBCOMMITTEE attempted to THE BOARD tried to follow a court
make the policy more specific and ruling governing short term suspen-
thereby cut down on subjective sions in Goss vs. Lopez. The thrust of
decision-making by the administration. the case, according to Ruth Zweifler,
One such area was loitering which is "Goss said that school is such an impor-
considered a "catch-all phrase," ac- tant right that if the suspension is even
cording to Dannemiller. The subcom- for one day they (students) should be
mittee tried to substitute "creating afforded minimal due process."
distraction and disruption during According to Zweifler, suspensions
school hours" in the revised draft. prior to a hearing are only supposed to
However, many board members felt occur where the child is really out of
this allowed students too much freedom control and is disruptive.
to hang around the hallways. Dan- Some alterations of the policy were to
nemiller said she did not think the sub- make drug dealing a more severe of-
committee's suggestions on loitering fense and to distinguish between buying
would go through. and selling. Buying is considered a less
A concern of the Student Advocacy severe offense. Some board members
Center, according to Ruth Zweifler, is expressed misgivings about how much
the disproportionate minority suspen- possession would constitute selling but
sions. According to the "Analysis of the issue remained unresolved Wed-
Suspension Data," black males are nesday night.
suspended at a proportionately higher
rate per population than white males ACCORDING TO subcommittee
and for offenses that require a more member Paul Weinhold, portions of the
subjective decision, such as loitering. policy dealing with assault were
Zweifler said she did not feel the sub- tightened up and pulled together isn-
committee's changes would aid tead of being scattered throughout the
disproportionate minority suspensions. policy. Weinhold said the subcommittee
"It's more in the implementation than tried to make category misconduct,
the way it's (the policy) written such as loitering, and violation of local
because it is so subjective." school rules, more reasonable and not
ACCORDING TO Zweifler, a cause for an automatic suspension.
change in philosophicl emphasis might "We wanted the administration to use
improve the minority situation. "It will more ingenuity in dealing with miscon-
be diminished by some really conscious duct. In the present policy they have to
decision on the part of the district that go through talking with parents, more
this is a problem and look for ways Ito counseling and trying to find out why
reduce it," she said. the student is having problems. I don't
However, Zweifler said the board was think suspensions is helping them
moving in the right direction. "They (students)."
New election scheduled
AFSCME executive board
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By PATRICIA HAGEN
A new election has been scheduled
to elect stewards and an executive
board for the University's largest em-
ployee union because balloting
problems invalidated Wednesday's
election. Several officers for Local 1583
of the American Federation of State,
County and Municipal Employees
(AFSCME) were elected.
About 700 members of the loacl which
represents 2,100 maintenance, food
service workers, custodians and nurses
aides on the Ann Arbor, Flint and
Dearborn campuses, voted in the elec-
tion. Results were made public yester-
day.
THE NEW ELECTION was
scheduled for June 6 by the election
committee because ballots were passed
out to the wrong people according to
local president Dwight Newman who
ran unopposed for his second two-year
term.
A run-off for the position of
bargaining chairperson will also be
conducted in next month's election
between the two top vote getters, Art
Anderson and Leroy Washington. None
of the four candidates received a
majority of the votes cast in the elec-
tion.
Other officers elected included Betty
Foster as vice-president and Tom Ab-
bott who was elected to the secretary-
treasurer post. Opal Booker was unop-
posed as recording secretary, and
Elijah Hargrove won a two-year term
as sargeant-at-arms.
AT A MEETING last night, executive
board members discussed the
possibility of conducting a drive to
bring the 3,400 University clerical
workers into the union in the fall.
University clericals voted down a
proposal to be represented by the
Organizing Committee for Clericals
(OCC) in an election last November
that has since been challenged by the
OCC. Further hearings on OCC's objec-
tions to the clerical's November elec-
tion are scheduled for June 14 by the
Michigan Employment Relations
Commission in Detroit.
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