What a wonderful showing of members and guests for our last meeting in November! Bill Von Alt was presented with a certificate and pin for becoming part of the Polio Plus Society - congratulations Bill! Kim Campbell reminded everyone to please return their notecards for the November service project and reminded everyone of the upcoming Holiday Party on Thursday, December 4th. Once all Rotary business items were discussed and Happy dollars collected, Cheri Dean introduced our speaker, Michael Schwartz, who presented on the Safety Valve Project.
Michael began his presentation by explaining the public school disciplinary system. When a student is facing expulsion, they have a right to a trial. Studies have shown that when a student missed 10 or more days in middle school, they have a 50% less chance graduating from high school. Also, if a student doesn't graduate from high school, their life expectancy decreases by a decade. Michael believes an argument can be made that keeping disruptive students in the classroom might be better than having them expelled due to the reasons listed above.
The Safety Valve Project started when Michael and a colleague were working on a death penalty case and noticed patterns of behavior based on amount of time spent in school. This non profit connects students who are having a disciplinary trial with counsel. The lawyers who volunteer do so pro bono or for a nominal flat fee paid by the organization. All legal work is free for the students and their families. Of the 60 cases they have advised, far more than half of the students are able to return to school. The goal is to find out why the incident happened, how did it happen, and how they can rectify the situation. To learn more about The Safety Valve Project, please visit https://svpga.org/