Tomorrow, the Senate Education and Health Committee will consider my HB 2341. It grew out of a serious incident in Fairfax County. A student was badly beaten in the community on a weekend. Police charges were filed in the case. But because the offense took place off school property, the principal of the school had no alternative but to allow that student back into the school until the case was adjudicated.

 

Naturally, the victim was terrified. In addition to suffering from the beating, the victim now had to face the assailant each day in school. Out of fear, the student did not return to the school until the assailant had been removed.

 

My bill provides that in cases where a student is charged with a community crime that involves serious physical harm to another student in the same school, principals could impose a short-term (no longer than ten days) suspension until the school decides whether that student should be placed in an alternative school. Here are some reasons I believe the legislation should be passed:

 

• The bill is very limited. It will apply only in cases of a small number of very serious crimes—felony assault, criminal sexual assault, mob assault. In all these cases, the school that would limit it to students in the same school. Fairfax estimates they would need to use the provisions of this legislation only a few times each year.
• The suspension will be extremely short term. Under current law, the principal would be allowed to suspend the student for a period of no longer than ten days. During this time, current law provides that the student must be told about alternative education arrangements. In Fairfax, that would mean the student would be allowed to access an online assignment system to keep up with assignments.
• As a practical matter, there will be a student out of school in a case like this. The policy decision before the Senate will be whether that student is the victim or the assailant.