Seven GHS students suspended
Two recent incidents involving Glacier High School students resulted in a total of seven suspensions, according to Kalispell Public Schools Superintendent Darlene Schottle.
One of the incidents involved several members of the school’s ninth-grade football team.
“It was determined that in a freshmen football bus on the way home from a game there were some students involved in some harrassment/bullying/intimidation-type of action,” Schottle said Wednesday.
The incident was first reported in Tuesday’s Kalispell Police Department blotter, when the grandmother of a girl who witnessed the event reported it to both the police and the school.
According to Schottle, there were six students suspected of participating in the incident, with an unspecified number of students being the victims. Those six students have been suspended and kicked off the football team, although that action is open to appeal by the parents.
“As far as I know there are no charges with the police,” Schottle said. “It’s up to the parents if they choose to do that.”
The Kalispell Police Department received two more calls regarding the incident Wednesday, one from the father of a student who said he had more information, but details of what took place in the incident have not been made public.
Schottle also commented on the arrest of a 17-year-old GHS senior Friday on two drug charges and an alcohol charge.
“He was suspended pending an appointment with me. At that point we will determine the nature of the incident,” she said. “He will then go to the board for expulsion or face another consequence for his action.”
She said her meeting with the student and his parents will take place in the next two days.
School Resource Officer Jason Parce was the arresting officer. He said school administrators notified him that the student might be under the influence of drugs and asked him to investigate. He found the student walking across the parking lot and confronted him along with the assistant principal.
“It was also my opinion that he was under the influence,” Parce said.
A search of the student’s vehicle located a small amount of marijuana, a marijuana pipe, a machete and two other knives — one with a 12-inch blade and one with a 4-inch blade — as well as an open container of alcohol. The student was charged with possession of drugs, possession of paraphernalia and possession of alcohol by a minor. No charges were filed for the weapons because they were not on the school campus and not on the student.
Parce said he has never had any negative contact with the student before the incident. He also pointed out that the school was showing improvement for illegal drug activity. By this time last year, he said, there had been between 10 and 12 drug arrests, including two on the first day of school.
“This was the first drug arrest at Glacier High School this year,” Parce said.
He credited the change to strong, direct statements to the students from the principal at the beginning of the year.