Nickolaus Trevino, 17, was suspended for the first week of his senior year at Centennial High School and lost his National Honor Society membership after a beer bottle was found in his hotel room while he was in China. A viola player, he was there touring last summer with a group of student musicians from Howard County.
He said losing the first week of school wasn't as bad as having his membership in the honor society taken away or worrying that his chances of getting into college would be compromised.
When it came time to write his college applications, he had to acknowledge the suspension and then explain what had happened. That, he said, was painful.
"I said, `It was a mistake. I wish it had never happened. Please don't use it as a judge of my character,'" he said.
Months after his friends had either been accepted or rejected by the University of Maryland, College Park, his application had been held up for special review because of his suspension. In the end, he was accepted at College Park, though he has decided to attend the University of Richmond.
"We are talking one empty beer," said his mother, Lori Geros, who believes that penalty was too harsh. School officials would not comment on the suspension for privacy reasons.
School officials in some jurisdictions in Maryland are rethinking zero-tolerance policies. State education officials say they would like to see suspension rates come down and are encouraging schools to try a program called Positive Behavior Intervention and Supports. The program emphasizes development of a consistent discipline that rewards good behavior.
Today, 400 of the state's 1,400 schools are using at least part of the program, but so far it appears not to have reduced suspensions statewide.
While the program helps identify the 15 percent to 20 percent of students in any school who have discipline issues, many schools don't have enough staff - including counselors and social workers - to help change their behavior, according to Charles Buckler, director of student services and alternative programs at the state Department of Education.
In part, the problem is that it is harder to use in high schools, where the most suspensions occur.
Several new school superintendents in Maryland - including Baltimore's Andres Alonso, Anne Arundel's Kevin Maxwell and Prince George's John Deasy - are changing their systems' approaches. They're motivated partly by the federal No Child Left Behind law, which penalizes school systems for high dropout rates.
