Local Radar

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High times at Fox Creek High

web posted March 31, 2006

OPINION – It seems that the Fox Creek school board has given permission to possessing illegal drugs on campus with a March 21 vote. James Dee Purvines, 17, and an unnamed juvenile were arrested and charged with possession of marijuana at Fox Creek High School on Tuesday March 14. Last Tuesday night that arrest, the drugs, and offense were forgiven and Mr. Purvines has been attending classes ever since.

The Edgefield County School Board also held their meeting this week at the District Office and upheld the expulsion of a Strom Thurmond football player for a lesser offense that occurred in November.

Try getting those two decisions to interconnect in a single school district if you can. Possession of drugs, in every single school in Edgefield County is an automatic expulsion, no exceptions, until now.

The Fox Creek school board has opened a real Pandora’s box with the most obtuse decision that could have been made, allowing a student arrested by Edgefield County Narcotics Investigators for drug possession on the school grounds to return to school without punishment. The reason given, according to sources, he was a senior.

What?

Other students have been expelled for drugs at Fox Creek, including a senior, but they were not granted the same special treatment. Parents of other students at Fox Creek have requested, in writing, to appeal disciplinary actions and were ignored. How does one get in the club for special favors in the school? Whom do you have to know?

The other student arrested along with Mr. Purvines has not been allowed to reenter the school. But then again, he's not a "senior". We've heard of "senior privileges" but this is ridiculous. If you let one back, you have to allow all of them back. There is this thing called equal treatment under the law and it applies to disciplinary actions in the school system.

Furthermore, how does the district office now deal with the throngs of parents who are also going to want their children readmitted to the public school system since the Fox Creek board made their bone-headed decision? These are supposed to be the "best and the brightest" of the county down at Fox Creek. They may need more than a little "wind beneath their wings" to get this lead ballon to fly.

The vote tally was not revealed and calls to Fox Creek school board members went unanswered. The vote was a split vote among board members Ferrell Jenkins, Ashley Williams, Jim Oliver, Bob Ross, and Mac Thomas. The rest of the board was not present.

Great job people, Here’s your card!

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