SAUGUS — Students in Saugus could soon learn from their suspendable offenses, rather than being sent home or sitting in an office all day.
“Administrators don’t really want to take a child out of school and take away time for learning,” said Saugus School Committee chairwoman Jeannie Meredith. “If you just send a kid home, not only are they not getting education time but they’re not getting educated on this offense.”
School Department members are looking into joining a partnership that exists between the Greater Beverly YMCA and Northshore Recovery High School that allows students facing suspension to attend a program to learn more about why what they did was wrong.
The program, Positive Alternatives to Student Suspension (PASS), was offered to schools in Peabody, Beverly, Ipswich, and Gloucester last year as a pilot. It costs $10,000 per year, but the cost will be prorated if the School Committee chooses to adopt it for the remainder of the school year. It is expected to cost between $3,000 and $3,500.
“In my opinion, you can’t punish away the offense,” said Meredith. “You need to help educate (students) to make better choices to help prevent them from repeating the offense. It won’t work every time, but we have to at least try to help them learn not to make the same mistakes twice.”
Students enrolled in the program are sent to the Beverly YMCA and meet with therapeutic groups, meet with on-site clinicians to complete mental health and substance use screenings, and are given the opportunity for individual counseling.
For several hours, the students are expected to work on academics, homework planning, and complete school assignments. They are provided help if they need it.
Therapeutic groups include music and expressive art, yoga and mindfulness, substance use and mental health, and groups and communication skills.
“Sometimes when you bring a child out of his (or her) environment, he (or she) may feel more comfortable to talk about what’s really going on,” said Meredith. “There might be less fear of repercussions with their own school.”
Information about the program will be presented to the School Committee on April 11.
