Josh Burns is a sophomore at North Polk Junior-Senior High School. He is 16. Josh participates in track, baseball, and football for North Polk. Josh has committed no prior violations of the good conduct code. Josh lives in Huxley, Iowa. On Friday, February 20, 1998, Josh went to a party at a fellow student's house. The party was in Polk City, which is about 12 ? 15 miles from Josh's home. A friend drove him to the party and dropped him off. He arrived at about 7:30 p.m. There were no parents or other adults present at the party. As soon as he got to the party, Josh learned that some students were drinking beer in a room in the front of the house. Josh knew there were cans of beer in the kitchen, but does not know whether they were in the refrigerator or a cooler. Josh could not leave, and could not call his parents.

On Monday morning, Mr. Fjelland spoke with a number of students about Friday's party, including Josh. Josh admitted being at the party, and said he had not been drinking. Josh was open and honest with Mr. Fjelland about his participation in Friday's party. He did not tell Mr. Fjelland about the Saturday night party. Mr. Fjelland told Josh he was in violation of the good conduct policy, because he had not left Friday's party as soon as he knew of the beer, and said he would decide later about a penalty. The District has a good conduct policy, which applies to all students who participate in extracurricular activities. Josh is subject to the policy because he participates in track, baseball, and football. The good conduct policy is contained in the Student/Parent Handbook, which is distributed to all students and parents in the District. The policy includes a number of guidelines when establishing the appropriate penalty. One states: "If a student comes forward and admits a violation of the good conduct policy without first being confronted by any school personnel, they will receive the minimum punishment for the said violation." Another states: "The administration will establish the number of events and the number of hours of community service for each violation according to the honesty of the student and the seriousness of the violation. This will not be an appealable item under this policy."

The good conduct policy states that it is a violation to possess alcoholic beverages with knowledge or intent, or control thereof. The policy says in the same paragraph that this includes lockers, automobiles, and other personal belongings. The District interprets this to include presence at a party with alcohol. It is difficult for us to find this interpretation to be reasonable when the policy formerly included such presence as a specifically stated separate violation.

Even if presence at a party with alcohol were uniformly explained to be a violation of the good conduct policy, there is no way to know whether all students would be present to receive the message, and parents would not be there. Parents and students would look to the good conduct policy itself to learn what is prohibited conduct. The language of the policy itself must be clear. School boards have the authority to promulgate rules to govern their students. Iowa Code ? 279.8(1997). Although school boards need not write rules which prohibit certain conduct "with the precision of a criminal code", the rules must be written "with sufficient definiteness that ordinary people can understand what conduct is prohibited and in a manner that does not encourage arbitrary and discriminatory enforcement." In re Justin Anderson, et al., 14 D.o.E. App. Dec. 294, 299(1997), quoting Fowler v. Bd. of Educ., 819 F.2d 657, 664 (6th Cir. 1987).

the language of the policy cannot reasonably be interpreted to include Josh's behavior at the party Friday night. The policy states that possession with knowledge, intent, or control is the violation. Josh was in a room in the back of the house, and no students were drinking in the room where he was. He was not offered a beer, nor was he anywhere near the beer. The students who were drinking were in the front of the house. Josh did not have transportation to leave the party, there was no adult present who could have driven him home, and his parents were not home for him to call. The party was in a separate town 12 ? 15 miles from his home. He did not learn of the presence of alcohol until he arrived at the party. Although we do not in any way condone Josh's presence at the party, we cannot find that he possessed alcohol according to the language of the policy.

That the decision of the Board of Directors of the North Polk Community School District made on March 19, 1998, was reversed.