Saturday school offered for suspended students

Suspended students in the Grand Coulee Dam School District will soon be able to work off one day of their suspension by attending a special Saturday school.

The district’s board of directors approved the plan at a recent meeting and the Saturday school is now in effect.

Superintendent Dennis Carlson said Tuesday that it will take an effort by both the student and his parents to make the Saturday school work.

Say a student receives a three-day suspension, and the parents and students want to take advantage of the special school time to get the student back into regular school a day earlier; then the parents must agree to get the student to Saturday school and be available to pick the student up if he or she doesn’t obey the rules and also be available to pick their student up at the end of the three-hour school period.

The student will be responsible for working with his or her teachers to get assignments to work on.

Class will last from 9 a.m. to noon, and there will be at least two school employees there — a teacher and paraprofessional.

Students attending Saturday school are not allowed to talk, sleep, drink, exchange personal notes or engage in any otherwise inappropriate behavior while in detention. The students can not visit their lockers during the period nor use cell phones. A five-minute break will be allowed for a restroom break, according to the rules.

The “Code of Conduct” also includes a dress code.

The Saturday program forces both the student and parents to deal with whatever issue caused the suspension in the first place, and involves all three of the district’s schools.

The Saturday school hasn’t had any students to date.