Bryce Ricklefs is a senior at Battle Creek-Idea Grove Community School District. He is third academically in a class of 75 students. During his high school career, Bryce has participated in football, basketball, baseball, golf, jazz band, band, speech, drama, and student government.

Bryce's 18th birthday was on July 5, 1998. Twice within two months following his birthday, he was seen purchasing tobacco products at the local convenience store. On both occasions, he was seen passing these products to another student. There is no dispute that Bryce was not using the tobacco himself.

Under the penalty provisions of the good conduct policy, the second violation rendered Bryce ineligible to participate in all extracurricular activities for a period of one year. His father appealed and contended that the procedures surrounding the hearing deprived Bryce of certain due process rights. In addition, Mr. Ricklefs argued that the policy was unreasonable as applied in this case.

After reviewing the procedures followed by the District, it was found that the due process protections afforded to students being deprived of participation in extracurricular activities were followed by the District in this case. A more troublesome aspect of the policy concerned the imposition of severe penalties and long-term exclusions from extracurricular activities that are more punitive than instructive. However, we cannot say that the one-year penalty for a second violation of the good conduct policy is "unreasonable" per se. Since the State Board would like to discourage the development of good conduct policies that focus more on "sanctions" than on "solutions". Guidelines for good conduct policies will be promulgated by rule to provide more guidance for district boards in development of these policies.