The Pocatello-Chubbuck School District's recently released student discipline report for this past school year shows a disconcerting trend.

More children were expelled from the district's schools in 2017-2018 compared to the prior school year and even elementary students got in  trouble more often for threats, drug possession and sexual offenses. When School District 25's 2015-2016 student discipline statistics are factored in, it's clear there's a trend of more student discipline issues occurring in the district.

School District 25 officials responded to the student discipline report released earlier this month by saying that in most cases the increases in disciplinary issues among the district's students were minimal during the past two school years and shouldn't be seen as a reason for concern.

But considering the media coverage of school violence and the fact that many school districts are giving strong consideration to arming teachers, any local increase in student disciplinary problems can be attention-getting.

That's especially true if those increases are among the youngest students — those attending District 25's elementary schools. 

For example, there were 28 disciplinary hearings for elementary students this past school year compared to just 10 in 2016-2017.

District officials said the increase was partially due to seven disciplinary hearings held at Wilcox Elementary School for tobacco use among students there.

According to Courtney Fisher, the communications director for School District 25, the tobacco issue at Wilcox was the result of an isolated group of students and wasn't indicative of any trend at that school. 

However, there were also more disciplinary hearings held for District 25 elementary school students this past school year for drug possession, threats, physical aggression, sex offense/exposure/harassment and battery compared to the prior school year.

Additionally, there were 247 disciplinary hearings held for School District 25 middle and high school students this past school year, compared to 231 during 2016-2017. The biggest increase was in truancy-related contract violations. Twenty-five hearings for this offense were held this past school year compared to just three during the prior school year.

District 25 Director of Student Support Kent Hobbs said this dramatic increase was mainly due to a difference in the way the district is citing students for attendance violations and does not necessarily indicate there are more truancies. 

According to Hobbs, starting this past school year schools can no longer issue truancy violations to students for not going to school if they are age 16 or older because students are not legally required to attend school after they turn 16. In response to this change, Hobbs said District 25 is punishing students who skip school by citing them for what the district calls attendance contract violations.

But there were also increases this past school year compared to the prior year in disciplinary hearings for District 25 middle and high school students for drug paraphernalia, drug use, tobacco, weapons, fights, sex offense/exposure/harassment, arson, physical aggression and profanity and verbal aggression.

School District 25 officials said most of these were minimal increases, though hearings for middle and high school students accused of drug use and arson were each up by five incidents and hearings for tobacco and physical aggression were each up by six incidents. 

The other increases in disciplinary hearings for middle and high school students were up by only one or two incidents, and in some areas, such as drug distribution, drug possession and threats, the number of disciplinary hearings actually decreased. 

This past school year the most numerous offenses in District 25 that resulted in disciplinary hearings for students were truancies for children under age 16 (37 incidents), weapons (32 incidents), the aforementioned attendance contract violations (25 incidents), drug use (21 incidents) and drug possession (19 incidents).  

Fisher said that none of the numbers mentioned in the student discipline report are high enough to alarm district officials.

“There’s nothing particularly noteworthy about those increases,” Fisher said, “and it’s nothing that we’re terribly worried about.”

District 25 also expelled more middle and high school students this past school year, despite having fewer expulsion hearings. During the 2016-2017 school year, the district held 26 expulsion hearings for middle and high school students, but only expelled one student. During 2017-2018, the district held 16 expulsion hearings and expelled five students.

Fisher said the larger number of middle and high school student expulsions was due to an increase in the severity of the incidents as well as repeat offenders. She also noted that none of the expulsions this past school year were permanent, meaning those students eventually returned to School District 25.

Fisher said none of those expulsions lasted for more than a trimester — or 10 weeks.

“They try to do the minimum amount of time and get kids back in school,” she said.

No School District 25 elementary students were expelled and no expulsion hearings were held for elementary students during 2017-2018. One expulsion hearing for a District 25 elementary student was held during the 2016-2017 school year and that student was expelled.