Last Tuesday night, Choate’s Student Council approved two proposed changes to the school’s one-strike drug policy. The first proposal states that the purchase, manufacture, possession, or use of marijuana is only grounds for Probation or Suspension, though distribution will continue to lead to dismissal. The second proposal changes the wording of the Student Handbook from “will lead to dismissal” to “will likely lead to dismissal,” in regards to the purchase, manufacture, possession, or use of illegal drugs, non-registered prescription drugs, and chemical substances.
Having been approved by Student Council, the proposal will now move to the Deans and then to Dean of Students Mr. James Stanley for review. According to Mpilo Norris ’18, President of the Student Council, the administration has long been against changing Choate’s drug policy, for a variety of reasons. Although the larger culture appears to relaxing its stance against marijuana—the drug is now legal, for either recreational or medicinal use, in 30 states and the District of Columbia—the substance remains illegal in Connecticut. Moreover, since it is unregulated, students might unknowingly purchase marijuana that is laced with other substances.
Student Council is also looking at ways to prevent drug abuse and strengthening students’ support system. Members are looking to broaden the scope of Crisis so that it can be used in more situations. The Council also wants to expand counseling services to address domestic drug abuse.
Choate’s Student Council is not alone in its examination of these issues. On January 14, the Student Council examined the policies and cultures of Choate’s peer schools at an inter-school student council conference at Loomis Chaffee. Katherine Burgstahler ’18, a Sixth Form Representative to the Student Council, learned a lot about the drug policies of other schools in particular, an issue that Choate’s council has been looking at for some time now. She said, “They all seemed to be more lenient than Choate’s.”
Seven schools attended the conference: Loomis, Avon Old Farms, Westminster, Northfield Mount Hermon, Taft, Deerfield, and Choate. Each school had between two and ten representatives which were divided among four rooms, each assigned a topic. The topics were major school rules, campus culture, student council, and miscellaneous.
Burgstahler ’18 remained in the “major school rules” room for the majority of the two-hour conference. “I learned that Choate has pretty much the strictest drug policy of all these schools, especially in terms of our marijuana policy, because when the schools were presenting their policies, a lot of them specifically grouped marijuana with alcohol, and Choate doesn’t do that. The punishments given were usually either probation or suspension, or it was taken to a disciplinary board that resembled the JC.” She continued to explain some of the rules at other schools: “I know at Loomis, the standard punishment for marijuana is a two-day suspension. At Avon, it’s usually suspension or dismissal. At Westminster, it’s usually expulsion, but you would never get expelled for any paraphernalia or just failing a drug test. At Taft, it’s a two-strike system, usually probation. At Deerfield, a three-day suspension.”
Will Robertson ’20, a Fourth Form Representative to the Student Council, attended the conference for the first time this year. “One thing that really interested me is how polarized Choate is in terms of some of their rules. For example, with things such as Uber and going to town Choate seemed to be very relaxed, especially compared to other schools. They’re very relaxed in those policies, but they’re stricter, for example, with our one strike policy. Choate was one of the few schools that actually had a one-strike policy.”
Burgstahler ’18 enjoyed the conversations she had and reflected on its importance to the Council: “It was important because our student council, in my opinion, has been very active, and we have been able to work on a lot of proposals and have a lot of conversations in my time here. Just talking to other schools is really helpful, because they’re having these same conversations, and they’re finding out if something is working well.” She went on to explain the differences she observed, saying, “Just seeing how everything is structured so differently at each school was really interesting… There are a lot of set-ups and a lot of other disciplinary systems and campus cultures that have been effective for other schools.”
One of these differences includes the prevalence of counseling at one of Choate’s peer schools. “Deerfield talked about how their counseling system is working really well, and that it has been really helpful for students, which I thought was really great,” said Burgstahler ’18. Around 70% of their student body utilizes and benefits from counseling.
Robertson ’20 found that by understanding other schools, he gained valuable information for himself as a Student Council member. “At student council meetings here, what’s brought up a lot is other school’s policies. So It was really nice to just sort of be able to definitively meet and hear what other people’s opinions are, and how people see things.”
