Editor's note: This story has been changed from its original version to reflect that the School District is not considering ways to keep more students with disciplinary records in their home school and that the superintendent can recommend to the School Board that a student be expelled.

Due in part to a surge in school threats after the Feb. 14 Parkland massacre, Collier public high school students are being sent to disciplinary programs at record rates, prompting concern among students’ rights advocates.

Some 270 Collier public high school students were sent to disciplinary programs last year, up from 169 the year before, school district data show. The majority were sent between February and May.

Last school year, the district investigated about 150 threats — a figure six times higher than the year prior — 85 percent of which occurred between Feb. 1 and May 31.

In letters sent to all 67 county school districts, the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida asked districts to “resist exclusionary practices” and reminded superintendents that students have a constitutional right to a high-quality education.

More:Threat toward Collier school deemed not credible, but district's response serious

The letter, sent March 12, was originally intended to respond to reports of school districts nationwide sending low-performing students to alternative schools to increase graduation rates and test scores, said Michelle Morton, juvenile justice policy coordinator for the ACLU of Florida and the letter's author.

But the message became even more relevant after schools began responding to threats by “funneling” more students into that system, she said.

The letter cited a December 2017 court ruling that concluded students facing alternative placement are protected by the Florida Administrative Procedures Act and thus have a right to due process.

“Decisions to exclude students through expulsion or reassignment must be appealable, and students must be given the opportunity to hear all the evidence against them, examine witnesses against them and call their own witnesses,” the letter states.

Removing at-risk students from their schools is a troubling trend, the letter states, as doing so can increase students' risk of being arrested and not graduating. The letter cited a 2004 study conducted by the U.S. Department of Justice.

Disciplinary alternative schools

In Collier County, students attending disciplinary alternative schools such as Phoenix do not have access to the same resources as those in traditional schools. That includes high-level courses such as Advanced Placement and Cambridge, said Rachel Dawes, director of student relations for Collier schools.

Alternative school students also are not allowed on their home school campuses and thus are excluded from social and sporting events.

More:After Florida shooting, more than 600 copycat threats have targeted schools

Collier’s alternative school population grew so much in the last year that the district purchased three portable classrooms this summer for the high school disciplinary program alone.

Morton said removing students from their schools does not solve their behavioral problems.

In most cases, students are actually worse off, said Cami Anderson, the former superintendent of alternative schools in New York City and founder of the Discipline Revolution Project, an organization that advocates for restorative discipline practices in schools.

Anderson, who is also the former superintendent of Newark Public Schools, said that in the vast majority of cases, when students are moved to alternative schools, their grades and self-esteem suffer, and they're more likely to have encounters with the law.

Alternative schools often employ low-performing teachers and administrators and don't have enough resources to provide a grade-specific curriculum, she said. And it's common for students to feel stigmatized.

"Students know why they're there and it's a self-fulfilling prophecy," Anderson said. "The assumption is that there is something wrong with you, that you're broken."

More:Copycat threats to Collier schools surged after Parkland shooting attack

The ACLU's Morton agreed.

“You’re creating more disconnection between the school and the community and you’re labeling that kid as a bad kid right when they’re developing their sense of identity,” she said. “It’s hugely damaging.”

Morton said schools should help students understand the consequences of their actions by facilitating a conversation between the child and those affected by his or her behavior. Any punishment should be restorative, Morton said, such as community service.

“We’re in this period of fear, and schools don’t have a lot of resources to do what most educators would agree is needed to create healthy climates where students can feel safe,” Morton said.

If a student who doesn’t have a disciplinary record is sent to an alternative school for making a threat as a joke, Morton recommends families appeal the decision.

Collier schools said they do not track appeals because few parents engage in the process.

Making threats toward schools

In Collier, when a threat is made, a team of school officials, including a psychologist, a deputy and school administrators, perform a threat assessment to determine if the threat is low, medium or high risk. The district declined to provide the breakdown of risk levels of the 150 threats made last year.

More:Collier deputies looked at 27 possible threats to schools in 12 days after Parkland attack

Collier schools Superintendent Kamela Patton said she believes students “got the message” that if they make a threat, they’ll face serious consequences.

“Nobody’s playing with this,” she said.

Collier schools declined to allow interviews with the principal of alternative schools or the head of school discipline. Citing student privacy, the district also refused to release data, without student names, that shows the breakdown of behaviors for which students were sent to alternative schools, such as threats, drug use or violence.

“We are big believers in ensuring students continue their education so they don’t become a dropout statistic,” Dawes said. “We offer them the best we can at alternative schools and have resources there for mental health and counseling.”

Other common violations

In addition to a rise in school threats, Dawes said other common violations that have escalated in recent years include marijuana use, which has gained popularity through vaping, as well as fighting and bringing weapons to school. The district saw many students acting out in response to Hurricane Irma, she said.

More:More teens are vaping marijuana than we thought, researchers say

Beyond last year’s referral spike, overall enrollment in the Phoenix programs for high school students has risen steadily in recent years, from 95 in May 2015 to 202 in May 2018.

“As times continue to change, we’re going to continue to see an increase in risky behavior from adolescents,” Dawes said.

Parents and students must be made aware that when it comes to school threats, the district has a zero-tolerance policy, she said.

Roy Terry, the Collier County School Board chairman and former principal of Palmetto Ridge High School, said those who are against alternative school referrals ought to experience being the principal of a public high school.

“You’ve got to take the safety of all your students in mind and I think right now that’s what we’re doing,” he said.

More:Brent Batten: Collier had deputies in schools long before today's security threats

State law mandates students who make a threat or bring a weapon to school must be expelled from their regular school for a minimum of one year. However the law gives superintendents the flexibility to alter the sentence and the option to send the student to a disciplinary program.

Up until this school year, the Collier school district required students who are sent to alternative schools to stay for the remainder of the semester during which they were sent and continue through the following semester. If a student was placed during the final four weeks of a semester an additional semester was required.

However the district reinterpreted the state law differently this year and now requires students who make threats or bring a weapon to school to stay in alternative placement for a minimum of one year.

Students referred to alternative schools in Collier have the option to pursue homeschooling instead where they can take classes online through Florida Virtual School.

More:Collier Superintendent Patton addresses safety concerns, delayed communication

Florida Virtual School records show online course completions for Collier homeschool students in the months since Parkland have reached 830 compared to 421 over the same period the year before.

But not all students who opted for homeschooling had been sent to alternative schools.

Yamilca Gomez, district relations manager for Florida Virtual School, said the number of families who have pulled their children from district schools to pursue homeschooling has "doubled in digits" across South Florida. She did not have figures available Friday.

"They’re taking their kids out of school because of all the tragedies we’ve seen in the last couple of years, not just in Parkland but throughout the nation," she said. "People are scared because they feel schools are not safe or districts are not doing enough to protect their children."