The new president of the New Paltz School Board, Donald Kerr, was charged with marijuana possession after being pulled over for reckless driving in 2008. Here's what was in his car, according to the Hudson Valley New Paltz Times:
The trooper says that Kerr was found with one glass pipe, a plastic baggy with 0.9 grams of weed, and another plastic bag with pot seeds, stems and eight roaches.
Since the incident, Kerr has pled gulity to reckless driving, but not to the drug charges, according to the Times Herald-Record. That probably ends any prosecution for his pot bust too, the Daily Freeman reported today. This leaves the citizens of the school district in a bit of a dilemma.
Kerr, who was already on the school board at the time of his arrest, was re-elected last year and appointed to its top position last month. This state of affairs seemed pretty hypocritical to the Hudson Valley Times, which published a long article on the irony of having a pot-possessing school board president of schools that are drug-free zones:
The school district is littered with signs promoting drug-free school zones. It has supported a DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) program for years. The district expects school board members to respect its code of conduct, which gives guidance on how teachers, students and staff should behave. According to those rules, school board members are supposed to “lead by example. Possessing, consuming, selling, distributing or exchanging look-a-like drugs, drug paraphernalia, alcoholic beverages or illegal substances, or being under the influence of either” is specifically disallowed for students, teachers and anyone else within the school walls. Much of the code deals with events that happen on school grounds -- unlike Kerr’s brush with the law. So what about the prospect of the board president going to trial on drug charges?
Last night, all this came to a head at a meeting of the school board. According to the Daily Freeman, the good people of New Paltz seemed very divided about whether Kerr's arrest sets a bad example for their youth:
Resident Kevin Barry asked that board members review the case against Kerr in an effort to set an example that students could respect under existing “zero tolerance” policies.
“There should be no exception for a member of our school board to be treated differently than a child that is in the school district,” he said.
Former village Trustee Rebecca Rotzler, who admitted smoking marijuana as a youth, asked Kerr to stay on the board.
“I am not a marijuana smoker, I did (smoke) when I was in high school with my peers, it was under the influence of my peers and no one else,” she said. “I do support you and please don’t resign. We appreciate the work that you do.”
The Times Herald-Record was there too:
Back and forth it went. People spoke passionately and, with rare exceptions, civilly, though several supporters of Kerr angered opponents by describing the proceeding as a witch hunt.
Board member Patrick Rausch said the board's attorney has found that the board cannot legally remove Kerr from office; only Kerr can decide to do that.
Before the meeting, Kerr said he didn't intend to resign. What message did he think he was sending by remaining?
"That we have a constitutional due process presumption of innocence unless proven guilty."
**UPDATE: Terence at the New Paltz Gadfly, who was at the meeting, has written a very thoughtful post about it, including summaries of some comments from community members that didn't make it into the newspapers. For his part, Terence thinks the New Paltz school district has a problem with its preferred method of disciplining errant students, Out of School Suspension:
In today's society, where almost all adults must work to keep their households afloat, OSS is more of a reward than a punishment, and should be reserved for those rare and extreme cases where keeping a child in school poses a danger. In fact, a few months ago a New Paltz high school student told me that yes, he has deliberately broken rules to earn himself a three-day vacation from school.
