A student can be suspended from American River College, removed from their classes administratively, lose their right to appeal, and never know until campus police tracks them down to escort them off campus.

It can all happen to any student on campus, and it reveals several gaping holes in the current disciplinary policy for American River College, and clearly lack consideration for the majority of students at American River College.

Most students commute to and from campus, and will spend most of their days schooling or working. Time at home is a rarity. By state law, a letter of notification has to be sent via certified mail, but the likelihood that any busy student would receive it, let alone be aware that he or she needed to pick it up at the post office is not high. Using

this as the sole form of contact with a student is not fair to them since there is little chance they will ever receive the letter.

Even district policy involving police reports is set out to sabotage a student's right to appeal a suspension. Campus police revealed that it would take 10 days to retrieve a filed police report, a wholly unrealistic amount of time considering that an appeal needs to be filed within seven days of receiving notification of a suspension.

The disciplinary code for American River College is flawed. Many years have passed since the school's policy was created, and the school has moved beyond the capabilities of it. A student needs to be able to know what they are being accused of doing, and under the current system a student is

forced to file an appeal without ever having the knowledge of what he or she did.

It would also be just as easy to look up a student's schedule, and to notify them of the suspension outside of one of their classes rather than waiting on certified mail to do it. While adhering to the state education code is a must, a switch from relying solely on regular mail, which is both slow and not always received, is signs of an archaic system that needs updating.

It is time for Student Association, as the voice of the students at American River College, to bring this crucial issue to the forefront, and to advocate that updates be made to the student handbook and to the district and college policy concerning discipline.