JACKSON SCHOOL BOARD SUSPENDS ONE STUDENT OVER MARCH 19 PRANK

JACKSON -- The Jackson Board of Education voted in a closed meeting Tuesday night to suspend one of seven students involved in a prank gone bad.

In a written statement released Wednesday, the board announced it had taken "additional action to discipline a student involved in the incident referred to by Mr. Stuart Venable based on new facts that first became available to the board on Monday, Sept. 13, 1999."

The board also voted to appoint a committee to study the development of a policy for the eligibility of students involved in extracurricular activities.

Superintendent Dr. Ron Anderson refused Wednesday to identify the student or specify the length of suspension. In so doing, he cited a state law that prohibits school officials from releasing information about an identifiable student.

Anderson said the suspension will prohibit the student from participating in any school activities.

"If you're suspended, it would be from school and anything else that is connected to school," he said. "We're seeking to aggressively investigate anything that we know about or become aware of."

Anderson said the action was the result of an internal investigation rather than the nearly three hours of public discussion on the matter Tuesday. Nearly 500 people attended the open session of the meeting to discuss the schools' eligibility policy and handling of the prank that involved the "kidnapping," terrorizing and tying to a cross of a 16-year old boy by seven of his friends March 19.

The boys, ages 15 and 16, were cited into the juvenile system, where they received punishments of community service and were required to undergo counseling. One of the boys was placed on a minimum of six months probation.

"It is the board's position that the Juvenile Court properly handled discipline of the individuals involved in the incident referred to by Mr. Stuart Venable," the school board said in its statement.

Administrators will continue to monitor students involved in the incident and "will take appropriate disciplinary action as may be needed."

Although the incident occurred off school grounds, many of those attending the meeting said the district mishandled its investigation of allegations that a portion of the incident was viewed on videotape during a class.

The perpetrators -- especially the boy placed on probation -- should not be allowed to participate in extracurricular activities, they said.

Venable, father of the victim, said Wednesday night he was unaware of the board's action. He said school officials should have performed a thorough investigation of the incident five months ago rather than waiting until after receiving criticism from the community.

"My feeling is the administration -- from last year's superintendent through the high school administration -- has basically tried to speak for 10,000 people, and now the community has found out what happened and is speaking out," he said.

Jackson resident Fritz Sander said the board's action was a positive step, but larger issues remain.

"I think the community felt rather empty last night and was not satisfied with the situation and had real doubts as to whether the board would take any action," said Sander. "There are other actions that definitely need to be taken and attitudes of the Board of Education that need to be carefully examined."

Venable agreed. He said the district needs to enact new policies, including a provision that requires all videos brought on campus to be previewed before being shown in class.

Students also should be held responsible for any material brought on campus that could harm another student physically or emotionally or that could disrupt a student's educational environment, he said.

Venable said he also wants a letter of reprimand placed in the personnel files of Jackson High School principal Rick McClard and assistant principal Clay Vangilder for not notifying teachers of a potentially violent situation.

"To me, that should have been done from the get-go," Venable said. "I think the school is way behind on common-sense policies and, I suspect, on Safe Schools Act policies that are supposed to already be in place."

Anderson said he believes the board's action will bring some feelings of closure to the incident. "I think that's what everyone's goal is," he said.

Venable said he and his family are ready to move on. He said he will work with their pastors and others for help in "gearing down and powering down" and in learning to forgive people for their actions.

In the meantime, the family will begin eliminating reminders of what has consumed them since last spring.

"For five months the whole dining room table is newspapers and faxes and letters from students," Venable said. "We're drained, and tonight we're going to take the barbecue grill out and take all the letters and faxes and everything, and we're going to burn them.

"We need to move on."