How can a Lawyer Defend Possession of Drugs / Alcohol in School Charges

Interviewer: How would you defend these cases, and how defensible are they?

Dale: First of all you have to understand that you’re dealing with school authorities, who want to be very careful to protect themselves from any liability. So usually what they do in order to protect themselves is to meet out the harshest penalties. That’s the conservative thing to do. There are procedures set forth in the Ohio revise code, as far as hearings for suspensions and expulsions. The notices have to be given a particular way and within a particular time period. And you show up and you talk to the school administrators. You show them that in fact the parents are considered about this, that they’re proactive in their kids life. You get the kids school records, you point out the good things that they have done, that this was a mistake in judgment. And you mitigate until you convince the school authorities that the best thing to do is maybe give them a warning or maybe give them a 3 day suspension or a 10 day suspension. But if you do nothing, the odds are they’ll meet out a very hefty expulsion.

Interviewer: And how often are you often are you able to succeed in mitigating the penalties for this kind of stuff?

Dale: Most times. Most of the time.

Interviewer: Okay. How about for college kids? Will they lose their scholarship if they consume alcohol? What can happen to them?

Dale: It goes on their record. And if it goes on your record that could prevent you from entrance to some schools, if they look at your school record.But now, when you’re talking about possession of marijuana, Okay. Any drug, as a matter of fact, any controlled substance or paraphernalia. They could disqualify you from getting any student aid. Even though, some of these offenses are minor misdemeanors.

Interviewer: We haven’t talked about that. So what about possession of drugs in high school, we’ll talk about that, possession of drugs in high school. Do the kids get cited for possession of prescription drugs or just illegal drugs? Or whats the consequences of consuming or possessing illegal or prescription drugs that they don’t have a prescription for at school.

Dale: The consequences for illegal possession are going more than likely to be an expulsion. And I’ll tell you a situation where I had a student who prevented, who took from a girl who was going to take a prescription drug. That she received from somebody else, he took it from her to prevent her from having it. And there was no one in disagreement on that point that that’s what occurred, and he was the one that got expelled as a result. Zero tolerance policies Richard, they’re easy. They’re very easy to determine. Oh, you got the drug, there’s nothing to consider. That’s it, you’re done.