Decatur school district introduces ‘marijuana smell’ policy

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Augest 1, 2025

DECATUR, Ill. (WCIA) — Parents and former teachers are asking questions about how the Decatur Public School district will be enforcing a new policy this year.

Any student who smells like marijuana, will have to call home and ask for a change of clothes or be picked up to change before returning to class, the district announced in a news release.

“They should not go to school smelling like that,” Heather Bratcher, a parent of a sixth-grader in Decatur Public Schools, said. “If they’re going in there smelling like marijuana, they’re not going to, you know, it’s a distraction for other kids and could be for their self as well.”

Some former Decatur teachers say the odor has been a problem for decades, even at the elementary school level — when it was the parents’ creating the issue.  

“We would let them into the building and treat them just like any other student, but we knew they were being exposed to it. You could smell it,” Kathy Althoff, a former teacher, said.

Althoff also has concerns on how the district will enforce the policy.

“Who’s going to manage it? Who’s going to do the calling?” Althoff said. “It worries me more that you’re going to lose the kids. If they go home, they may not come back. Even if they waited and came back the next day, they’ve still lost a day of school, and you need them there.”