JAY – School Committee members have voted to readmit two high school students who were expelled in October for separate incidents. One teenager was accused of bringing drugs to school in his car, the other left a shotgun in his truck. Both vehicles were parked at Jay High School.

The students will return Jan. 22, Superintendent Robert Wall said Friday.

Following a lengthy deliberation Thursday night the panel rejected the superintendent’s recommendation not to re-admit the student expelled on a drug violation, School Committee Chairman Clint Brooks said.

The committee did impose rigid restrictions on the student’s return, Brooks said, including the student’s transportation options, no involvement in school-sponsored events and extra-curricular activities, the process of attaining credits to meet graduation requirements, and unannounced searches of student’s pockets, backpack and so forth.

The 17-year-old boy is accused of bringing marijuana and psychedelic mushrooms to school in his vehicle Oct. 13 and faces criminal drug charges.

“The concern I had is we maintain a standard in relation to our students and the readmission we were looking at isn’t just about one student,” Wall said. “Our students are not customers and not available for people who want to distribute drugs and I thought it was too soon.”

Among the committee’s conditions for the student are that he is restricted to riding the bus to school or in a vehicle with an adult family member and must report each day to the office to subject himself to search and inspection.

The student who left the shotgun in his vehicle on Oct. 13 was re-admitted without restrictions, Wall said. He had completed satisfactory progress on his re-entry plan, he said.

The shotgun was left in the student’s locked truck after target practice and he forgot about it when he went to school on Oct. 13. Jay police discovered while they were investigating a separate matter.

He’ll start regular classes on Jan. 22 but in the meantime he’s able to access guidance staff and other supportive situations.

Brooks previously said, when the student was expelled, that he was honest and forthright about the incident and understood that the School Committee was mandated by federal and state statutes to expel him from school, but asked the superintendent to modify the expulsion in a manner that would allow him to maintain grades, allowed to request readmission later in the year and graduate with his class in June.


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