BELFAST, Maine — Belfast Area High School officials expelled a student on Tuesday night after he apparently was caught in January selling drugs on school property.
RSU 20 Superintendent Bruce Mailloux confirmed Wednesday that the school district’s board of directors decided in executive session to expel the student.
“He was expelled as other students have been in the past, with conditions. It’s our hope that those conditions will be fulfilled,” Mailloux said.
He would not divulge more information, such as whether it was a one-time situation or an ongoing problem. The offense occurred roughly 10 days ago, according to a school administrator.
“It’s much less common now than it used to be,” Mailloux said of students selling drugs at school.
About five years ago, the 640-student high school had a major problem, according to the superintendent.
“We drew a line in the sand, and said, ‘enough is enough,’” he recalled. “A student should have the right to come to school and not be faced with that kind of activity.”
School Resource Officer Greg Stearns, a policeman with the Belfast Police Department, said he has been working in the high school and middle school for four years. While he wouldn’t comment on the incident that led to the student’s expulsion, he did say that schools function as microcosms of their community. When there are drugs in the community, there are drugs in the school, he said.
Stearns said he has seen much less acceptance of drugs in school on the part of other students.
“What has changed a lot in the last 20 years is that it’s less accepted,” he said. “The majority of the kids don’t want it in the school.”
He said that on a daily basis, he receives calls, emails or visits from students and parents who have information they want to share with him.
“This job is not just marching the hallways and being a cop. My first goal was to knock down the wall between the [police] uniform and our young people,” he said. “This is a great school. Students here are awesome kids … they let us know what they don’t want going on in their school.”
According to Stearns, the school is careful to follow its administrative guidelines when there is suspicion that a student is selling drugs.
When students are found with drugs, they are suspended, he said. When students are caught selling drugs at school, they are charged with aggravated trafficking in drugs.
Neither Stearns nor Mailloux would comment on whether the expelled student will face criminal charges or name the drug being sold.
“These days, there are just as many prescription medications as marijuana,” Stearns said.
Until recently, a majority of Maine students self-reported that their first experiences with illegal substances occurred with alcohol or marijuana, but that has changed.
“Most kids’ first drug experience is with opiates, because they are so prevalent,” Stearns said. “The sad thing about opiates is that they’re so addicting that some people can be addicted the first time they try it.”
He said he tries to focus on the positive work that happens at the school.
“Ninety-nine percent of the time, even when kids screw up, they’re just kids who made a mistake,” he said. “They’re going to learn from those mistakes. I call it ‘making a positive out of a negative.’ Had they not been caught, and held accountable, who knows if they’d make that change?”
Yup just what they needed to do and should be so proud of themselves!!!!! NOT! Yes the person should have consequences and such, but expelling?? All this is going to do is put another uneducated person out there. He/She is not going to stop selling.. Hell, they might sell tons more now that they have all day on there hands to supply the addicted. Suspend the person for such days, do not allow make up work, then bring them back and have a special set of circumstances for the offender. Like for instance allowed on school ground at such a time only to be escorted in the building and sit in lock down all day. Let them out long enough to eat in the cafeteria, then back to the room. This way they still are getting an education and the other students are being protected from him. When school is out give him 5 min to get off the property. Take away all dances and extra circular programs. This person needs help and not just be thrown back on the streets. I have yet to see anyone come out of juvenile jail or prison for that matter a different person. Usually they come out worse then when they went in and think they are all bad asses etc. Saddly very few of these people live a life outside of bars!
Rules are rules. Zero tolerance. Let him goto jail. If we had flogging in this country we would only need to flog a few in the town square and I will bet many of these dealers would think twice. We have to stop with the leniency. Drugs are killing this country!
Escorted , special circumstances? Come one schools dont have the money and this kid would wear this as a badge of honor.
It’s not the drugs which are killing this country but the excessive criminalization and incarceration. Drug addiction should be handled as a health care issue. Imprisoning and flogging isn’t going to do any good for a random marijuana dealer. You send someone to prison for selling joints, they’ll get out five years later and probably end up committing armed robbery or end up stabbing someone for ‘messing with his food’. What if we treated alcoholics in the same manner as drug addicts? People do the most retarded things of their lives while drunk, yet we find it within our hearts to treat them medically. Prison is not an effective deterrent for either drug abuse or trafficking. In most prisons drugs are more available than they are on the street, albeit more expensive.
In a time when all of humanity needs more tolerance and acceptance you propose a totalitarian approach?
“There are no bad boys. There is only bad environment, bad training, bad example, bad thinking.” – Father Edward J. Flanagan, Founder of Boys Town.
Right! It is now time to train this young man to become a man and not a product of a liberal system that carries him when he faults.
Actually it’s the liberal system that is going to educate, counsel, and teach him jobs skills in youth detention. It is the liberal system that is going to try and make him believe in himself in order that he can turn himself around. Not some corporal system of lock him up and throw away the key, where his self worth will be judge by whether or not he can shank before being shanked.
You mean the liberal system where they convince him that it’s really societies fault not his? How dare we expect kids to grow up to be adults that obey the law. I guess they only have to obey the ones we agree with. If this kid was selling guns at school, you’d be calling for life imprisonment!
I agree, and remember drugs are a form of guns, you can kill yourself (taking) or you can kill someone else (selling).
That logic also applies to cars as well.. Should we convict every car salesman who sells a cars that gets in a fatal accident? We have had a lot of snowmobile deaths this winter, should the Maine State Police be doing a round up of the snowmobile salesmen?
Really, cars and forks? You equate them with selling Drugs? Unbeliveible and very sad.
I can kill myself with a fork also, does that mean we should throw anyone who sells silverware in jail?
No I refer to the system that finds out why he thinks the way he does and helps him find the confidence to change that thinking. Putting him in a box for “X” amount of time does nothing but keep recidivism rates up. As for the guns comment… during hunting season I used to take guns to school everyday like many of my classmates. We had knives in our pocket too. There was a bit of gun selling and trading going on as well…
In the words of Martin Luther King Jr.:
“One may well ask: “How can you advocate breaking some laws and obeying others?” The answer lies in the fact that there are two types of laws: just and unjust. I would be the first to advocate obeying just laws. One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws. I would agree with St. Augustine that “an unjust law is no law at all.”
Now, what is the difference between the two? How does one determine whether a law is just or unjust? A just law is a man made code that squares with the moral law or the law of God. An unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law. To put it in the terms of St. Thomas Aquinas: An unjust law is a human law that is not rooted in eternal law and natural law. Any law that uplifts human personality is just. Any law that degrades human personality is unjust. All segregation statutes are unjust because segregation distorts the soul and damages the personality. It gives the segregator a false sense of superiority and the segregated a false sense of inferiority. Segregation, to use the terminology of the Jewish philosopher Martin Buber, substitutes an “I it” relationship for an “I thou” relationship and ends up relegating persons to the status of things. Hence segregation is not only politically, economically and sociologically unsound, it is morally wrong and sinful. Paul Tillich has said that sin is separation. Is not segregation an existential expression of man’s tragic separation, his awful estrangement, his terrible sinfulness? Thus it is that I can urge men to obey the 1954 decision of the Supreme Court, for it is morally right; and I can urge them to disobey segregation ordinances, for they are morally wrong.”
The unjust laws in this case are the prohibition laws. We have a moral obligation to disobey laws of oppression, the intent of which are to infringe upon the personal liberty of citizens.
Also, guns are made for the explicit purpose of killing living beings. There is no standard by which one can compare drugs and guns. Drugs are an issue of personal consumption while guns are an issue of mere property ownership. That’s like mixing apples and iguanas.
I am a recovering alcoholic and addict. Clean and sober 6 years. I know what I am talking about. The more people let me get away with stuff the more I did it. You will hear this is every AA and NA room you go into. bust em now and stop a lifetime of hell.
My hats off to ya for being clean!!!
So because you are a recovering alcoholic and successfully sober (which, by my disagreement with your theory I mean to diminish in no manner) that means your opinion on criminalization of drugs is the only right one? As a person who is medically addicted to a drug your opinion on addiction is no doubt one of value, but the in the broad sense your rationale is flawed, that is if one wishes to threat others humanely.
Is there anyone who disagrees with the idea that jailing anyone who is drunk, merely because they are under the influence of a drug, is a bad thing? What good could come from locking up and fining thousands of drunks nationwide on a daily basis? The criminalization of alcohol would not, and in fact DID not, in any manner stop people from procuring the object of their vice. All it accomplished was turning otherwise law abiding citizens into criminals and it resulted in thousands of people being killed for violations of the unnecessary laws of prohibition.
One cannot advocate both the imprisonment of marijuana possessors and the legality of alcohol without being a thoroughgoing hypocrite. More people die each month from alcohol abuse than ever have in the entire history of marijuana use.It should not be a crime to be a cocaine addict. Such people are suffering a malady resulting from poor choice of consumption. This is a medical problem, every bit as much as alcoholism. Jailing people because they are sick is inhumane and counterproductive.
Possession of narcotics should not be legal, but also should not be criminalized. One should not be imprisoned merely for choosing to consume something. This is known as legislation of morality, and such oppressive use of government power is precisely what our founding fathers warned us against undertaking.
I must disagree with you strongly. Simply on the basis that you advocate flogging for nonviolent ‘criminals’, you sir, do not know what you are talking about. Perhaps you were raised in the middle ages, but in this day and age torture is seen as barbaric. What will you propose next? Caning for a jaywalking violation? Being set aflame for insurance fraud?
Drugs aren’t killing this country, the lack of values and support of torture are. Such inhumane actions are no better than committing outright assault.
It is the schools responsibility to protect the students that still have a chance at a future. Schools cannot and should not have to pay to have a person guarding a delinquent all day.
Nobody is denying education for this loser. Let this kid get home schooled, seems like his parents are already doing a stellar job at raising him.
I hope someday you are subject to the harsh judement of strangers who know nothing about you. Then you might understand just how harmful intolerance is to society.
They did what they should have, especially considering that selling drugs on school property is a federal offense, and this kid is most likely headed for juvenile hall at this point. Making sure this kid gets help and the education they need is up to the parents, not the school department!
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I’m not really sure where “Juvenile Hall” is located these days. We should all keep in mind that years ago so called “bad kids” or troublemakers were allowed to quit school. When Junior High was 7th,8th, and 9th grade-that was last time you saw some of these kids-they didn’t show for High School. Some were out working in the woods for their fathers and grandfathers. These school officials are dealing with a whole bunch of kids today that don’t want to be there.
Where? 300 beds split between Long Creek in South Portland and Mountain View in Charleston.
Drug dealers are a scourge and should be dealt with as harshly as possible.
Death sentences for selling a joint?
Or perhaps being burned alive like witches?
I disagree, this kid is not interested in an education and most likely has not been for some time. He was SELLING DRUGS to other kids. He does not belong in school at the present time. tutor him at home at parents expence part of parental responsiblity in teaching right from wrong as well as scared str8 program then maybe reintroduction to school. May sound harsh to some but maybe a harsh wake up call is what’s needed before he/she throws their entire life away.
That is a very thorough and detailed judgement for a person about whom you know next to nothing.
What you fail to understand: It is not the drugs which lead to many people throwing ‘their entire life away’ but the time imprisoned and the mentality learned during said imprisonment. Treating the child medically would benefit him far more than throwing him in with a group of harder criminals. All this does is continue the downward spiral. If you truly want to break the cycle of addiction and drug proliferation you must approach the problem in a different manner than the failed policy of the last forty years.
Yes it is isn’t it, and I’ll stand by it while we both watch our communities go to he-l in a hand basket while we treat crimminal behaviours with a “Oh the poor dear” attitude.
What kind of fantasy world do you live in? If the dealer was interested in an education he/she wouldn’t be dealing drugs. Why put the students who want a good education in with this ilk? Put him/her in jail for breaking the law, this is where he/she belongs!!!!!!!!!!
The parents should be handling this problem. They should be taking a little more accountability by home drug testing their kids. Myteensavers counselors treat these teen addicts. They will say that there was little reinforcement of the anti-drug message. Teens don’t need dealers to get them high. They can raid their family medicine cabinets, where pills are often available for the taking. Combating this problem starts in the home with mom and dad!
We don’t know if someone had a business going or was just sharing some with one of his buddies and asked for some coin to cover it. We will have to assume he/she was an entrepreneur if he/she got expelled.
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He can goto another school. This is life. It is against school policy to deal drugs period.
Have you been attacked by some rampant marijuana addicts or something? Your irrational hatred is disturbing. I am simply glad to not be aquainted with people who espouse such an excessive level of intolerance.
Interesting side note: I was once told by an officer that students selling drugs in school do not get the additional “possesion of drugs within a school zone” tacked onto their crime like any other person would. The reason being that the government is mandating they attend school. Don’t know if this is true, but it’s certainly interesting.
News said selling drugs nothing about useing.
He or she will be back…You can bank on it!!!
And yes…you can be “un”expelled…
This is bad, but at least he was not caught “Tebowing”!
It’s not as if he can’t ever return to school, even BAHS. Expulsions typically only last a year or so and are never permanent. He can likely petition to come back in a year or so. If not, he could always consider getting his GED.
The school has a book they give to each kid at the beginning of the school year. They have academic homerooms that go over this. The policies and consequences are very clearly laid out for the students. This is a hard lesson but bringing any drugs to school is not alright. Kids do crap but why would they think they need to bring it into school to use or to sell — thats just being cocky.
He shouldnt just be epelled. He should be sentenced to hard time in prison. Let the big boys teach a nice young firm boy the lessons of being a criminal.
Yeh, that’ll teach him for having a joint. Just what young kids need these days, a nice healthy dose of prison rape.