Northwest Local Schools discuss student behavior, discipline months after student allegedly assaulted teacher

COLERAIN TOWNSHIP, Ohio — Student behavior and disciplinary action took center state at the Northwest Local School District work session Wednesday night.

Officials did not discuss a January incident where a student allegedly assaulted a teacher at Colerain High School. The 16-year-old is accused of punching a teacher in the head multiple times, sending her to the hospital.

RELATED | Prosecutor: Colerain High School student punched teacher multiple times, causing brain injury

Superintendent Darrell Yater told WCPO they have meetings like Wednesday's every year to review support guidelines and the code of conduct.

"The timing of this is we have a revision process on an annual basis, and it allows the board to hear what people are thinking in terms of revisions that they might see come to them at an upcoming board meeting," he said.

While Yater did not comment on the Colerain High School assault, police body camera shows that the student told police he was vaping in the bathroom and started to freak out minutes later.

On Feb. 26, Hamilton County Prosecutor Melissa Powers said a toxicology report revealed there was THC in the student’s system.

"There was some level — a trace amount — of THC metabolite in his blood and his urine, but not enough that would even impair him to operate a motor vehicle. It was such, such a small amount," Powers said.

School officials spent a good portion of the meeting talking about THC usage in their schools.

"We have seen occurrences with THC within our buildings, unfortunately at younger ages than in previous years because of accessibility," said Dustin Gehring, director of student services at NWLS.

Gehring said this academic year the number of THC incidents is down 38% compared to last school year when they looked at the same time period.

During the 2022-2023 academic school year, 40 out of 162 students were caught possessing or using the drug twice. No student was caught more than two times. This academic year, three students out of 73 were caught possessing or using THC twice. No student was caught more than two times.

"Almost all of them act in such a remorseful way around what occurred and they’re embarrassed and their parents are also embarrassed," he said.

Gehring said if a student is a first-time offender they "will receive a five-day suspension with a recommendation for exclusion."

"We quickly schedule the hearing. Prior to the hearing, parents are asked to do two things ... one, the student needs to fill out a self-reflection tool. In addition to that, the parent is asked to go have a test for a drug test of the student from a lab setting, and so then they have to produce those results at the hearing. If that’s produced the outcome is different than if it isn’t," Gehring said.

Students and parents are not required to do this, but Gehring said 80-90% of families do these two things.

"If it’s not produced the student gets additional days out of school. If it is produced they come back on probation after the five days," he said.

Gehring also called out vape shops selling students the drug illegally. He claimed some shops are not checking IDs. He said he knows all of this because the students tell him where they got the THC during the hearings.

He said this is an issue school districts are facing across the country.