Dist. 128 to review student conduct rules
Five years after adopting a controversial code of conduct for athletes and other students, Libertyville-Vernon Hills Area High School District 128 officials soon will begin a scheduled review of the proposal.
The administration's goal is to see how the rules, which sought to hold students accountable for what they post online, are working and to tweak them if needed.
No changes are expected, however, Associate Superintendent Al Fleming said.
Adopted in May 2006, the policy focuses on Libertyville High or Vernon Hills High students involved in sports, fine arts or other extracurricular activities.
Under the rules, such students must sign good-conduct pledges and will face disciplinary action for “maintaining or being identified on a blog site (that) depicts illegal or inappropriate behavior.”
Drinking, fighting and hazing are among the potential violations. Infractions could result in a suspension from an extracurricular program.
District 128 officials considered the policy a fairly routine matter while drafting it but news outlets around the globe jumped on the story because the rules were believed to be the first of their kind.
Newspapers and news agencies including the San Francisco Chronicle, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and the international Agence France-Presse published articles about the policy. District leaders eventually had to turn down interview requests from MTV and other media outlets.
“It was a pretty amazing media frenzy,” said Superintendent Prentiss Lea, who was an associate superintendent with the district when the policy was created.
“It certainly was surprising,” board member Judy Sugarman added. “But we have such a competent team in place... and I thought we handled it well.”
Despite the attention and some complaints that the policy was an invasion of privacy or violated free-speech rights, the rules have stood strong over the past five years and have not been challenged in court.
In fact, other school districts have followed in the District 128 board's footsteps and adopted similar conduct policies.
“We simply put in the policy what (other) schools were already doing,” Lea said. “Nobody had simply put it on paper.”
A group of administrators and staffers will review district data relating to the conduct code, Fleming said. They'll also examine the conduct policies at other schools.
The group will convene next week for the first time, Fleming said. The session will not be open to the public.