TERRE HAUTE — A new disciplinary program for Clay Community School Corp. students is keeping them in school and off the streets.

It’s called COPE, or Court Ordered Placement for Education. It is a court-administered alternative to out-of-school suspension.

In the past, an out-of-school suspension was little more than a vacation day for students, who might sleep in or roam the streets, often unsupervised if parents were working.

No more.

“We felt a need to get the problem under control,” said Mary Brown, director of Clay County Community Corrections. The result is COPE, a collaborative effort between Circuit Court, the prosecutor’s office, Community Corrections and the school corporation.

Under COPE, students and their parents appear in court before Clay County Circuit Court Judge Joseph Trout, who has agreed to participate in the program.

Instead of an out-of-school suspension, students spend three hours at an alternative school doing their school assignments, for which they receive credit. After lunch, they spend another three hours doing community service, which might involve work at the Clay County Humane Society, city parks or yard work for the elderly.

Because it’s court-ordered, students and parents must follow through or face more severe consequences. That could include a filing of juvenile truancy against students and/or a charge of educational neglect against a parent/guardian who does not ensure their child’s school attendance.

If the child completes COPE, the court record is expunged.

COPE adds a realistic view of the consequences of a student’s misbehavior, said Lynn Romas, Northview High School assistant principal who is in charge of discipline for the school.

For Northview, the program has meant a 75 percent reduction in out-of-school suspensions over a similar time frame last year.

Last year, students had served 345 days in out-of-school suspensions as of Oct. 30; this year, the number was 86 days of out-of-school suspensions during the same time frame.

While there have been a few repeat offenders, “For the most part, it’s a huge success. Word gets out,” Brown said. “Kids don’t want to go to the COPE program.”

Clay County officials looked at a similar program in Putnam County “and we modeled ours after theirs,” she said.

How it works

COPE is used for such disciplinary problems as attendance issues, fighting, insubordination, tobacco use, vandalism or harassment. Typically, a minor first-time violation won’t land a student in COPE, but a series of violations — part of a progressive disciplinary system — will.

Disciplining students who have attendance problems with out-of-school suspension “has never made sense to me,” Romas said. “We’re giving them [students] what they want” (with out-of-school suspension).

Romas believes student behavior has improved at Northview because students don’t want to participate in COPE. It’s a sobering experience for the students to appear in court before a judge.

Romas said if he were the student standing in the courtroom, “I would be scared to death. It would make a believer out of me.”

When Romas determines that a student should be referred to COPE, school documents are sent to Brown in Community Corrections. She meets with Prosecutor Lee Reberger, who files the appropriate court document.

Students in COPE appear before Judge Trout at 8 a.m. the first day they are in the program. He’s made himself available Monday through Friday, whenever students are referred to the program.

The Legislature passed a law that allows school corporations and local courts to enter into such agreements, Trout said.

“The reason I agreed was because I am firmly convinced that whatever you can do to keep kids in school, you should do it and encourage them to become the best students they can be,” Trout said.

In the past, parents were better able to motivate children to stay in school and work hard, Trout said. “Certain groups of students don’t seem to respond to encouragement from their parents or the schools, and the schools need help enforcing disciplinary policies,” Trout said.

As far as parents and children having to appear in court together, “I think it is opening dialogue between parents and children about what’s expected,” Trout said.

COPE is not used for more serious offenses involving alcohol, drugs or weapons in school, Romas said. In those cases, police and the juvenile court system would be involved, and students would face a recommendation for expulsion from school.

Those issues “are a lot more severe than what COPE would tackle,” Romas said.

Dana Bottomley supervises COPE students in a room within Cumberland Academy, located behind North Clay Middle School.

“It’s a very strict environment,” she said. The students must complete school work and there is no talking, sleeping, writing notes or drawing pictures.

If they finish, “I give them support material for the subject matter they are working on,” she said.

One of the goals of COPE is to keep students from falling behind academically. If they have trouble with an assignment, Bottomley will help them or find someone who can.

Some days she might have three or four students, other days just one. She also supervises Northview’s in-school suspension program.

She believes COPE is a successful deterrent to poor behavior because students don’t want to go to court, “and they don’t like being cooped up in this little room with someone on their back all the time.”

Bottomley keeps them on task, and when they are done with COPE, she still follows up to see how they are doing.

Another reason they’d prefer not to be in COPE is because “I don’t think they are thrilled about community service,” Bottomley said. “Shoveling poop at the Humane Society is not that fun.”

COPE serves students at Northview and Clay City high schools as well Cumberland Academy, an alternative program. The goal is to expand it to serve middle school students, too, Romas said.

Proven results

One parent whose child participated in COPE says “it’s an excellent program. I think they should do it at other schools if they can. I think getting kids out and doing community service is perfect,” she said.

Students take it seriously, she said. “When they have to go in front of a judge, it makes them nervous,” she said.

Her name is not being used in order to protect the identity of her son, who is a minor. While she lauds the program, the parent does not believe her son’s disciplinary problem should have resulted in COPE.

That doesn’t stop her from praising the program, however. Her son participated in COPE for three days.

Her 17-year-old son said that when he appeared in front of the judge, he was worried. “It worked out good,” he said. He believes COPE is better than letting students have a free day out of school.

“It’s been keeping kids out of trouble more,” he said.

For his community service, he went to the Clay County Humane Society one day and cleaned out cat pens and litter boxes and filled food and water dishes.

On another day, he went to a park and painted benches. “It was hard,” he said.

One aspect of COPE he liked was that he got credit for his school work. If it was an out-of-school suspension, he wouldn’t get credit for that work.

Romas noted that once the judge becomes involved in the process, “there is no getting out of it,” he said.

Even if a parent talks about withdrawing a child from school or homeschooling, the student must still complete COPE, which lasts for the number of days the student would have received an out-of-school suspension.

Families also must pay $15 a day for supervision of students while they are in COPE. “Parents aren’t crazy about that,” Romas said. Students can receive anywhere from one to 10 days in COPE.

Jeff Bell, Clay City High School principal, agrees that the program is a good deterrent to poor behavior in school. Through COPE, “Kids are being held accountable, they are being monitored and they are keeping up with school work,” he said.

The judicial system reminds them that when they get older, there are ramifications for bad decisions, Bell said.



Sue Loughlin can be reached at (812) 231-4235 or sue.loughlin@tribstar.com.