Student Expulsions Orange County

Zero-tolerance policies in public schools are pushing up the numbers of student expulsions in Orange County, straining the capacity of the county's alternative schools to educate those teenagers. Enrollment in such programs, which include continuation schools, single-sex academies and detention centers, has more than doubled in the last four years. Educators said they are scrambling for classroom space in office buildings and storefronts to adapt to the growth.

Assuming a role usually assigned to parents or police, a growing number of public schools are disciplining students for their misbehavior off campus. Students driving drunk on a weekend or caught fighting at the mall not only risk arrest and further consequences at home. Now, as the call for safe schools intensifies, they also may be suspended or expelled. Police stopped the car of a Newport Beach high school senior last February for playing the Grateful Dead too loud.