BUTLER TWP — The Butler Area School District School Board voted to appoint Jennifer Cummings as board president, and Jennifer Daniels-Wells to the position of board vice president at its Monday meeting.

Cummings was previously vice president of the board, and Al Vavro was the president. The board has a meeting each December for its members to make these appointments, and set the meeting schedule for the coming year.

Both newly appointed officials were nominated by board member Mary Waggoner, who said both women had expertise in education and experience with children and students, which made them good candidates for the leadership roles.

Following the board’s annual organizational meeting, a discussion regarding a potential policy concerning “reasonable self defense” took place which lasted more than an hour.

District solicitor Tom Breth drafted new language to an existing policy on student discipline, which would have allowed students who are physically assaulted by another student without provocation to reasonably defend themselves from physical harm solely while attempting to end the situation.

A parent of Butler school district students spoke at the Nov. 21 board meeting to suggest a policy be put in place to prevent a student from being punished for acting in physical self defense if physically attacked.

Board members expressed concern at the policy update, because its language could have caused untrained teachers and other school personnel to be expected to intervene in a physical altercation between students. Vavro said in addition to putting teachers in an uncomfortable position, an intervening adult could be sued for interacting with a student physically.

Board member Regenold Griffin asked that some sort of policy addressing students’ ability to defend themselves be discussed further or even considered for vote at a future meeting.

District Superintendent Brian White sent out two letters in October to families of students in the district regarding the increased number of behavioral problems, some of which had escalated to criminal behavior.

Co-principal of Butler Senior High School John Wyllie said that out of the 2,003 students at the school, 1,742 of them have not had disciplinary referrals this school year. Of the students who have had referrals, 19 students have had six to eight referrals, and another 15 have had nine or more.

Following further complaints from parents about behavioral problems at Butler Area School District, administrators prepared an after-school intervention program for violators. White said Nov. 15 that the intervention program, to be rolled out at the high school and helmed by its co-principals, would stop the relatively small number of students with numerous offenses from hurting other students.

Students referred to the intervention program by the board will attend classes only from 3 to 5 p.m. and would stay in the program for an extended period, according to White.

White told the board at the meeting that despite the high number of “fights” at the high school and Butler Intermediate High School, there has only been one physical altercation in the district since Nov. 1. He surmised that the letters to parents and increased attention from administrators affected students’ attitudes toward fights.

“Kids clearly know that ‘This is now a threshold of consequence that I don’t want to deal with,’” White said.