Forgery on Campus
Receiving an off-campus pass is a benefit for upperclassmen that must be earned. This year, however, a handful of students who didn’t qualify for an off-campus pass have tried to circumvent the rules and take advantage of this privilege.
According to the CVUSD Policy and Procedures manual, the criteria for receiving an off-campus pass includes the conditions of satisfactory citizenship, academic standing (at least a 2.0), and attendance (no full day truancies during the previous semester).
“We consider an ID card an official school document,” said Mrs. Thomas, Dean of Activities. “If you change it in any way there (are) consequences… (Students are going) off campus illegally and their parents have not signed for them to be off.”
Drew Smith*, junior, was one of these particular students who took it upon himself to create his own off-campus pass. Smith photocopied a legitimate pass and taped it onto his own school ID,enabling him to leave campus numerous times.
Eventually he was caught. “(The campus supervisor) ran her finger over it and I knew that I had been caught,” Smith said of the incident, “she asked ‘Wait can I see that?’ … and of course I knew I was busted.”
When it came time for Smith to receive his punishment, he was shocked by the result.
“They said I was being punished for defacing school property,” Smith said, “but I mean technically I went off campus illegally for like thirty days. I was surprised that I only got one Saturday school.”
Dealing with this issue has caused administration to review procedure for letting students off campus during lunch. “We have to literally stop and make the kids pull out their IDs,” says Patty Goldstein, an off campus supervisor, “and we have to feel (the passes) and look at them to make sure the kids haven’t tried to alter them in any way.”
Security at the gates has become increasingly tighter and now there is the future possibility of consequence for those who have properly earned an off-campus pass as well.
“If (forging off-campus passes) continues to get out of hand it could be very possible that eventually they will get taken away,” Goldstein said.
