The Pleasant Valley School Board approved several amendments to its policies last week during its regularly scheduled meeting. The policies involved behavior of students in regard to weapons, student discipline, terroristic threats and acts, metal detection systems, and gangs.

Board member Linda Micklos questioned how comprehensive the definition needs to be for weapons. Any student violating this policy faces up to a one-year suspension from school."This could potentially be a very serious issue for the school," Micklos said.The policy defines a weapon as "any tool, instrument or implement capable of inflicting serious bodily injury to an individual." It goes on to list various types of guns, knives, explosives and more. The policy also goes on to include "any instrument which, in the judgment of the administration, could be used as a weapon or mistaken for one. Imitation or replica weapons and/or objects like any of the foregoing ('look-alikes') may be considered a 'weapon' under this policy."Miklos suggested that the school district consider expanding the list. She herself asked for more clarification on what construes an imitation, replica or "look-alike" weapon. Her concern is that the school district could end up in a legal battle over whether an item is a "weapon" or not.Gerard Geiger, the school district's solicitor, said the reference to "look-alike" means that the object could be mistaken for being a weapon."I don't think we have to be concerned," he said. "It's really a subject of common-sense interpretation."Geiger goes on to point out that it really isn't practical to list everything that could fall under the list. Almost anything could be used in an aggressive act, including books and pencils.Board member Dominick Sacci tried to show Micklos that the policy does provide more clarification in the following paragraph, which explains when educational items can be considered weapons. The paragraph states, "Any instrument, tool or implement, while being used in an educational or a vocational process … will not be defined as a weapon as long as that instrument, tool or implement is being used for its educationally or a vocationally defined purpose."A couple board members said it is in the best interest of the safety of the students to approve the policy. A consideration to amend it with more examples could be done later. The policy was passed unanimously.After the meeting, Pleasant Valley Superintendent Carole Geary said the Pennsylvania School Board Association has been reviewing the school district's policy manuals for students, teachers and others to look for inconsistencies. It was through the review that some changes in the wording in the policies needed to be adjusted and voted on at the meeting.Geary said the length of the suspension depends on variety of factors. If a student breaks the policy in November for example, then the suspension would be less than a year because the school year will end in about seven months. The type of weapon, intent to use it and harm done are all factors. The suspension can run 12 months from one school year into the next if the offense is severe enough.