By Taylor St. Germain
Editor-in-Chief
Organizations at Mira Costa should not be punished in an instance of students partaking in illicit activity off campus, as there is no determined school policy to address such behavior. The Costa administration, teachers, and advisors of Costa organizations should remain a bystander to the situation and let the Manhattan Beach Police Department and School Resource Officer John Loy deal with inappropriate student activity.
Due to the fact that there is no specific method put in place on how to determine if an outside party is affiliated with the school, besides conducting an investigation off of police reports and interviewing students, students in an organization, as a whole, should not be reprimanded. There is no way to prove whether an event was held in the name of a program or rather a group of friends who happen to be associated with the same school organization.
Costa should not affiliate students with their school organization when not on school grounds or under the supervision of school officials. School programs should not intervene within students’ personal lives off campus, as their actions outside of school should not contribute to the consequences or punishments that students receive at school. Rather, MBPD should be the sole disciplinary body and more efficiently deal with individual students.
According to the Mira Costa Discipline Matrix, the consumption of alcohol is only a school offense when on school grounds, going to or coming from school, during the lunch period, or going to a school-sponsored event. Therefore, when illicit behavior occurs outside of those restrictions, the administration or school programs should not take consequential action.
According to Dale, neither the disciplinary matrix, nor any form of policy, was used to formulate punishment for students involved in the MUN activity. Dale also stated that the decision to take action was a simple reaction to “common sense.” In the future, some type of uniform policy with precise guidelines that dictate punishments with respect to situation severity should be implemented. But, until Costa develops a formal policy for illicit activity that takes place off of school grounds, the MBPD should be left alone to handle the situation.
Manhattan Beach, Hermosa Beach and El Segundo have implemented steps to prevent teens’ consumption of alcohol through a police group known as the “Party Patrol.” The group began in 2012 and was funded by The Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control. While this group focuses on only a specific type of illegal activity among teens, Manhattan Beach and its surrounding communities are taking the appropriate steps to keeping South Bay communities’ youth safe and under strict supervision on their own. There is no need for another body, such as a school district or administration, to involve itself in situations that can be handled by law enforcement.
In an instance of a gathering in which everyone in a program is not involved, innocent students should not be negatively affected by their peers’ behavior. When a program instills consequences against everyone in an organization, these students are being unfairly affected. The MBPD should deal with the students directly at the party, rather than having the school indirectly punish those who were not there.
Mira Costa organizations should only punish students for their inappropriate activity when it is in the limitations of the Mira Costa Discipline Matrix. Under this policy, students cannot be punished within school for their behavior off campus, as their actions may not be affiliated with on-campus programs.
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