HARRISONBURG, Va. (WHSV) – A Harrisonburg attorney is sounding the alarm about what he sees as a gap in the alcohol and drug policy at Rockingham County’s new public schools. Louis Nagy claims the Rockingham County School Board failed to follow its own rules based on policy it adopted a few months ago.

The Rockingham County School Board revised its policy on alcohol and drugs in schools in August. Although alcohol is included in the title of the policy, it is not mentioned anywhere else in the policy. Instead, the policy only includes specific guidelines related to drug violations.

“Any lawyer who looks at this issue will find that there are big problems here. I did this in part to alert them that they need to fix this policy,” Nagy said. “So the question now is: Are they going to fix it, when are they going to fix it and how are they going to fix it? Because it needs to be fixed.

If a student violates the alcohol and drug policy, he or she may face sanctions, including in-school or out-of-school suspension, poor academic grade, and ban from competing. in a sports team. However, these penalties are only outlined for drug-related offenses.

“Anyone with an ounce of common sense can read this policy and see that alcohol is not included. But what they are doing is ignoring the rules they themselves wrote and continuing to punish Rockingham County public school students under a policy that does not include them. does not and does not warn them of what would happen if they were caught drinking alcohol at school. property,” Nagy said.

The RCPS defines alcohol as a restricted substance in a different policy. However, this term is not used in the new drug and alcohol policy.

“As far as I know, this doesn’t appear anywhere else in any of their policies. If you read the controlled substances policy, the penalty they can impose for an alcohol violation is basically recommending that the student get some sort of counseling or treatment and that’s it,” a Nagy said.

It is illegal for all students in grades K-12 to consume or possess alcohol, but Nagy said that does not mean the school division can impose penalties that are not clearly defined in its policies .

“As a citizen, I don’t know how I’m going to break the rule if they don’t put it in writing clearly. Here, what happened was they wrote a policy that I’m sure they wanted to include alcohol, but that’s just not the case.” Nagy said. “They are not respecting the rules that they themselves have established. Again, I didn’t write the rules, I didn’t create the rules – they did – and now they are not following the rules they put in place for all students in County Rockingham and their parents.

Nagy said he contacted the school board and his attorney about the policy’s shortcomings, but his concerns were ignored. He asks families whose students were punished for alcohol violations under the new policy to contact him.

WHSV contacted Rockingham County Public Schools about Nagy’s concerns. Superintendent Larry Shifflett sent the following statement in response:

“In accordance with Virginia law, Virginia Board of Education policies, and RCPS policies, students in grades K-12 are not permitted to possess or consume alcohol. This is nothing new and should not be controversial. Attempts to provoke agitation over this issue are rooted in the dissatisfaction of individuals and families with the consequences of their actions.”

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