The new approach to discipline that has been implemented in the Grove City School District merits close observation by other school systems. It is a positive approach based on communicating expectations of behavior, as well as rewards, rather than the traditional punishment-and-consequences process.

"It's rewarding and recognizing good behaviors rather than the negatives," said Bill Ford, a first-grade teacher at Highland Elementary School and internal coach for the behavior plan, which is being used this year for the first time.

Ford said communication has improved during the year as a result of the new behavior and discipline approach.

It is to be hoped that over the long run, this positive approach will help to avoid future problems like two threatening incidents that occurred this month in the district.

On April 4, a "murder list" was found at Grove City High School. The list named a total of 48 students and teachers.

On April 9, a "List of people I would kill," naming 14 students and teachers, was found at Grove City Middle School.

Investigations determined that the authors of the first list were a 15-year-old female student in the ninth grade and a 17-year-old female student in the 11th grade.

A 14-year-old eighth-grader is the suspected writer of the second list.

Such incidents have to be disheartening for a school district that is working so hard to improve the school learning environment.

"When you get the whole school involved and they are all working toward the same goal, that's what's important," said Assistant Superintendent Tom Bell, reflecting on the good that has come from the program, which originated in Illinois.

"Illinois has found that as this has been instituted in their schools, as time goes on the academics increase greatly because the problem behaviors are extinguished throughout time," Ford said.

As the two threat incidents illustrated, the program's impact has not yet been fully felt district-wide, but Grove City teachers and administrators should remain committed to its possibilities.

The "hit lists" were products of immature minds, but that immaturity won't insulate the three students from the ramifications that lie ahead. As they grow in maturity, the more they will understand the stupidity of their actions.

As a jeer in the April 13 edition of the Butler Eagle regarding the first list noted, "It is to be hoped that the two students are in the process of learning a lesson that will keep them on the right path for the rest of their lives."

That same sentiment is relevant regarding the third student.

As Grove City school officials look forward to the second year of the new schoolwide behavior plan, they need to give extensive thought to more ways to emphasize to students the seriousness and consequences of threats. They need to consider what might have gone wrong in terms of the three female students accused in this month's incidents and how those situations might have been averted.

The district is on a positive track with the new schoolwide behavior initiative, but it must keep reminding students that there remains no window of tolerance regarding situations where the lives and well-being of students, faculty members and administrators are at risk, or are perceived to be at risk.