The Haddonfield Board of Education, at its Thursday, Feb. 7 meeting, revoked the controversial 24/7 policy, which was suspended earlier in the school year.
The policy, №5132, dealt with in-school punishment for out-of-school drug or alcohol offenses.
According to Board President Steve Weinstein, the district has been following the course of the case involving Ramapo in Bergen County.
The Appellate division in that case ruled against the school district.
“The case is over,” Weinstein said. “We previously suspended the policy when the case was pending to the courts.”
Joe Betley, the attorney representing the school board, was present at the meeting and said he thought the 24/7 policy had been beneficial.
“I hate to see it go,” he said. “We’ve had a lot of good, spirited discussion about it.”
“It’s been a long battle,” Betley added.
According to Betley, the courts say that districts cannot punish a student for off-campus drug or alcohol offenses.
As an example, he said, if a student athlete is arrested or convicted of an offense off campus, his or her student leadership position cannot be taken away, nor can he or she be taken off a team.
“It takes away some of the discretion that coaches had,” Betley said.
Board member Drew Hansen said that it might be a good idea to bring another initiative into the equation to reinvigorate a community discussion, as good reasons for the policy are still present.
“I think it did a lot of good to change the culture,” Hansen said.
To attorney Matt Wolf, the attorney representing the plaintiff in a lawsuit filed against the policy several years ago, “the revocation of the policy is only the result of our effort.”
When the suit was brought against the district in 2010, the district denied that it was illegal, he said, “only to arrive at what we told them at the very beginning.”
“The policy was clearly illegal from the beginning,” Wolf added.
The Sun will have more on the ongoing dispute in Feb. 20’s edition.
