Appellant's son, Cory Carroll, attends the District's high school. At the time of the appeal hearing, Cory was 17 years old and in the 11th grade. Prior to being suspended under the District's good conduct policy, he participated in basketball and baseball. This was Cory's second violation under the good conduct policy. Cory's first violation of the good conduct policy occurred in October 1998. Cory's second violation of the good conduct policy took place on July 1, 1999. Both violations were for consuming alcohol.

Appellant does not dispute the Board's authority to establish rules governing student behavior, nor does she claim that her son was treated differently from other students who committed the same offense. Rather, her claim is that a one-year suspension for a second offense is too severe and that the Board should retroactively apply its new policy to Cory. We take note of the fact that the severity of the second-offense penalty caused the Board to re-evaluate its policy, to begin the process of adopting a new one with lesser penalties, and to modify its existing policy to allow Cory to practice with his teams.

The State Board has previously been asked to rule on the severity of penalties imposed for violations of good conduct policies. In In re Bryce Ricklefs, 16 D.o.E. App. Dec. 300 (1999), a student was found to have committed a second violation of the good conduct policy for possession of a tobacco product. The penalty was suspension from extracurricular activities for one year. Although it has expressed concern about good conduct policies that "focus more on'sanctions' than on'solutions'," the State Board concluded that a "one-year penalty is not'unreasonable' per se." Id. The Board reached the same conclusion in the appeal of In re Joseph Fuhrmeister, 5 D.o.E. App. Dec. 335(1988). We must reach the same conclusion in this case.

Appellant has also asked the State Board to require the District Board to retroactively apply its new, more lenient good conduct policy to Cory. The State Board has previously ruled on this issue. In that earlier appeal, a student was ruled ineligible for participation in extracurricular activities for the remainder of her high school career for a fourth violation of the good conduct policy. The board of that district later revised its policy and lessened the penalties. The board declined to apply its new policy retroactively to the student. Its decision was upheld by the State Board.

That the Paton-Churdan Community School Board of Directors' decision made on January 12, 2000, upholding the one-year suspension of Cory Carroll from participating in extracurricular activities for a second violation of the good conduct policy, was affirmed.