In early Nov. 2023, Felix Baughn(11) was caught with a THC vape in his locker at Stoughton High School. Wisconsin state law, as well as district policy, prohibits the use of drugs on school property, which can result in an expulsion hearing, where the BoE decides whether or not the student is expelled. However, Stoughton Area School Board policy allows an alternative option: a Voluntary Student Agreement.
A Voluntary Student Agreement (VSA) is reserved for less severe offenses and allows students to continue enrollment at SHS through online school (Edgenuity). Agreeing to the VSA means the student receives a year-long suspension and a ban from school grounds.
Additionally, the student loses the right to participate in sports, clubs, and other extracurricular activities. Three days after the offense, Felix was given five days to accept the VSA. He accepted it and was suspended for the rest of the year. This was his first offense.
At the Nov. 20 board meeting, several people spoke on advocating for future policy changes regarding the Voluntary Student Agreement. Felix’s parents, Stephanie and Ryan Baughn made verbal statements, while other parents of students in the district wrote letters questioning the actions of the Board, mainly regarding the isolation of a student. Among these written statements was Bethany Pluymers, the Dean of Administration at the University of Madison, Wisconsin Law School.
Pluymers claimed the VSA doesn’t follow the district’s mission statement: “Our compassionate school community will operate within a proactive system of support to promote a positive culture with equity, respect, and dignity.” Instead, Pluymers labels the VSA as inequitable and touches on the fact that the district assumes students have the proper adult support at home and the mental fortitude to deal with this level of social isolation.
Mia Croyle, a member of the Board of Education, believes the “one-size-fits-all” style of punishment is not the correct way to approach these situations.
“I would love to see our response be more grounded in restorative justice practice,” Croyle said.
Favoring the educational approach, Croyle believes students should be assisted in a more direct manner, allowing them to voice the reasoning behind their actions. By adopting this method, Croyle would hope to learn why this behavior is happening, what reasons led up to it, and how the district can properly allocate resources to help these students with their struggles.
One of these resources would be a larger counseling department. Neighboring districts such as Oregon, Middleton, and Monona Grove have more expansive departments that offer support for drug and alcohol use as well as general therapy.
Due to Stoughton’s tight budget, not as much money is put toward this degree of treatment.
Sharing the same idea as Croyle, Ryan Baughn, father of Felix Baughn, has made several attempts to appeal to the school board to alter policies relating to suspension and administrative response to student behavior.
“I don’t think kicking a kid out of school is the right solution for addressing some of the underlying issues that might have led to the choices that [were made],” Baughn said. “The Voluntary Student Agreement could have been an opportunity to be a productive process that maybe helped Felix learn a little more about himself and his social and emotional decision-making processes.”
When it comes to offering a VSA, most of the decision-making rests upon School administrators.
Ideally, it makes sense for the Principal and Assistant Principal to make these sorts of decisions as most escalated behavior issues go through them. However, Baughn believes the counselors at SHS should have a greater say.
“The counselors have day-to-day interactions with these students […] they would have a more measured response and comprehensive understanding of what Felix would have needed,” Baughn said. “When [the district] has such a punitive approach to this, it doesn’t make me think that they actually want to address and deal with the problems. I feel like if there could just be an approach where [counselors] talked with a child to get them to connect their emotions to their actions and have a discussion about this that maybe we’d start to see some of these behavior issues that are repeated, start to soften because now they’re connecting with a trusted adult.”
Another of Baughn’s concerns is the isolation of the student that the VSA enforces. Even though it’s not expulsion, a student can not return to school grounds until the agreement expires. This means that teacher and peer relationships will start to deteriorate, and lectures and experiences that prove crucial to class success will be missed.
One of Felix’s friends, Nick Fitzgibbon, is concerned for Felix’s well-being due to the year-long isolation.
“[One bad decision aside], school was a way for him to keep away from drugs,” Fitzgibbon said. “I think that keeping him away from school is just going to make it worse. Yeah, he should have gotten a consequence, but he should have been guided better.”
Comparing it to the stress it put on students during COVID-19, Baughn is concerned other students may not have the proper support. When questioned about how Stoughton High School supports students who struggle with substance use, Assistant Principal Lance Masters referenced the district’s use of preventative measures, specifically naming the semester-long Health class required of all students.
Baughn hopes that in the future, the administration will adopt a perspective more focused on mental health, which he believes would bring more all-around success to the district.
For a more in-depth perspective, please watch the previous board meetings in November and early December. There, you can see the Board’s response to these issues and formulate your own ideals.