Suspended students get to work

Most of the students working at the old Go-Kart Family Fun Center on Seltice Way could recall visiting the now-defunct amusement park to play mini-golf and race go-karts.

But Monday was a different time, and the park looked like a different place as students pulled knapweed from the overgrown hillsides and dismantled the chain-link fence surrounding the bumper boat pool, abandoned except for a shallow puddle of stagnant water and algae.

Jordan Brooks should have been in class, but the Post Falls High School freshman was suspended for disruptive behavior. Two years ago, that would have meant a mini-vacation for Brooks – time off school as punishment and time at home to watch TV and sleep in. But under a year-old program in the Post Falls School District, students who get in trouble can serve their suspension, and avoid losing credits, by doing community service.

“Rather than being at home, unsupervised doing nothing, we provide them with community service opportunities like this,” said Mark Jones, supervisor of the Post Falls School District’s Alternative to Suspension Program, or ATS.

Through the program, parents can opt to have their students serve their suspension by volunteering to do community service.

This week, six students are working to clean up the site of the former fun park, now home to a community ice rink. To accommodate future expansions and parking areas, Jones said, the remains of the amusement park needed to be cleared.

Students in ATS start at 10 a.m. and spend five hours working at the Post Falls Senior Center, at the fire station, along the Centennial Trail or at other sites. Each afternoon, they spend three hours on schoolwork. They don’t go home until 6 in the evening.

Brooks said his parents thought the program was a good alternative to “watching TV, eating popcorn and having fun” while he was suspended from school.

“I could have stayed home, or I could have come out here,” Brooks said as he rolled up a length of chain-link fencing. “This goes better on your record.”

Unlike traditional suspension, time spent in ATS doesn’t count as an absence.

That’s why Burke Anderson chose ATS. The 18-year-old sophomore was suspended a day for cussing. Then, the day he got back to school, Anderson was suspended again for threatening to kill a friend.

“I was messing around,” Anderson said. “My teacher flipped out. Go figure.”

Because he had exceeded the number of allowed absences and was in danger of losing credits needed to graduate, Anderson said he opted for ATS.

Jones, an employee with Kootenai County Juvenile Probation, said ATS is beneficial to students, parents and the community. Funded through a grant from the Safe and Drug Free Schools Program, ATS is in its second year. Although there are similar programs throughout the state, ATS is the only one with an educational component.

The three-year grant provides funding for Jones as well as a teacher and a paraprofessional to help kids with their school work so they don’t fall behind.

Carol Carlson, assistant principal at Post Falls High, said many students come back from ATS with a positive attitude. “Some of these kids are not used to volunteering their time,” Carlson said. “It’s a good way for them to see there are people in the community who can use their help.”

Students in the ATS program keep the Centennial Trail cleared from Heutter to Stateline. Last year, they planted 1,000 trees along the trail and cleared knapweed that made the 12-foot-wide path nearly impassable in places.

Every student who works two hours on the trail receives a T-shirt from the Centennial Trail Foundation and is recognized at the foundation’s board meeting.

Ray Martel, a member of the foundation, said getting the students involved gives them incentive to help protect the trail.

“I wouldn’t want to break up something I built,” Martel said.

Some students working Monday said the hard work required for ATS is a deterrent to getting into trouble. A 15-year-old freshman caught with chewing tobacco said he’d rather be at school with his friends. A sophomore who threatened to beat up another student said she didn’t like “getting dirty.”

“I’d rather be home so I can sleep,” she said.