by L.A. Jones
Union editor

Anoka-Hennepin's student discipline policy has been tweaked for the 2006-07 academic year in response to concerns from both parents and Boardmember Jerry Newton expressed at the School Board's June 26 meeting.

Andover parents Karri Engstran and Kim Savaria appeared before the board then to express support for their children, who they said were pulled out of their classes by a district student services advocate, threatened and intimidated with possible disciplinary action in the future - and they were never informed it as parents.

The actions were spurred by a neighborhood dispute in which an African American boy alleged racial slurs and did not even involve a school or school bus setting, according to Engstran and Savaria.

"I was never, not once, notified of this," Engstran said. "There's no way that students should be in a room alone. They deserve to have an advocate with them."

According to Superintendent Dr. Roger Giroux, the matter was referred to Student Services Director Eric Moore, who was expected to contact the parents and resolve the issue.

The actual discipline policy, even as revised by Newton with assistance from district legal counsel Paul Cady, still allows the school district to remove a student from class and not to inform the parents "under unusual circumstances."

Newton expressed support for the rewritten student discipline policy Monday night given the understanding that a committee will be convened comprising both educators and parents to review the policy for redundancy and possible misunderstandings by parents.

The new policy will now be published and sent to parents of all District 11 students in time for the beginning of the 2006-07 academic year.

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