Kindergarten Suspension Suit Denied

ABCnews.com ^ | May 1, 2002 | Associated Press

[mthiel]

Kindergarten Suspension Suit Denied Judge Dismisses Lawsuit Over New Jersey Kindergartner Suspended for Playing Cops and Robbers

The Associated Press

NEWARK, N.J. May 1 — A federal judge threw out a civil lawsuit filed by the parents of a kindergartner who was suspended for playing cops and robbers at school.

Scot and Cassandra Garrick sued the Sayreville school district in June 2000 after their 6-year-old son and three classmates were disciplined for playing the game and pointing their fingers as guns.

The couple claimed that the district and several educators had deprived the pupils of their constitutional rights to free speech, protection from cruel and excessive punishment, due process and access to public education.

The Garricks were represented for free by The Rutherford Institute of Charlottesville, Va., a nonprofit group focused on First Amendment and religious freedom cases. The lawsuit did not specify the amount of damages sought.

Steven H. Aden, the group's chief litigation counsel, said Tuesday that U.S. District Judge Katharine S. Hayden had dismissed the lawsuit.

Hayden, who heard oral arguments in the case last week, found that school officials may restrict violent or disruptive games. Aden said the couple plans to appeal the ruling.

"They have the right to be children. The school and the courts shouldn't censor their play it's politically incorrect," Aden told the Home News Tribune of East Brunswick for Wednesday's editions.

School board members said they felt vindicated by the ruling.

"The court has affirmed what the board and district position has been all along, that we have the ability to make the decisions that are in the best interest of the children," Board of Education President Kevin Ciak said.

School officials said the four boys were on the playground at Wilson School during recess on March 15, 2000, pretending their fingers were guns and saying, "I want to shoot you." Some other pupils overheard the comments and reported them to a teacher.

Copyright 2002 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

[mthiel]

This is a sad, sad day. The teachers and school officials who suspended these kids should be put in prison and discover what real criminals are.

[Mike Fieschko]

If the kids were playing 'cowboys and Indians' they'd probably be in a re-education camp right now.

[sinkspur]

Suspending kindergartners for being kindergartners is stupid, but so is a civil lawsuit. If the school has a policy, it has a policy.

Take the kids to another school. Problem solved.

[Sunshine Sister]

One more reason to yank your kids out of public schools and either home school or put them in private schools. This stinks!

[TheGrimReaper]

If they had been reciting the "Vagina Monologues", they would probably have been promoted to 4th Grade!
This is a prime example of the kind of mental midgets running the education industry today.

[valkyrieanne]

Has anyone looked at the judge's ruling? I don't know where to look myself, but something occurred to me. In many states there is no compulsory education until age 6 or 7 (which is beyond the kindergarten year.) If the state doesn't even require kids to go to kindergarten, maybe a lawsuit charging that the child was denied his rights to go to school would be considered moot. You can't usually sue to recover something you don't have an original "right" to in the first place. Maybe a lawyer out there could clarify.

[Steve_Seattle]

"suspending kindergatners for being kindergartners is stupid, but so is a civil lawsuit"

I basically agree. As Robert Bork has pointed out, the Constitution does not protect us from all bad laws or stupid regulations, only unconstitutional ones, and to raise constitutional issues here is a reach. As for the school board, they are cretins. Virtually every boy in my generation played cops and robbers, cowboys and Indians, and war, and we did not grow up to be mass murderers. It is pathetic and a bit frightening that the school board cannot tell the difference between playing and real violence, and the less said about the tattle-tale students the better. Hitler and Stalin would have loved them.

[justshutupandtakeit]

1) any wagers that if these children were black they would have been suspended? Since there are likely disparate punishments meted out to different races constitutional issues can easily be involved. Me, I wouldn't have sued but the administrators would have a full time job just dealing with me if this sh!t was pulled on one of my children.

2) most of these rules are so idiotic they are not posted or publicized for fear that their incredible absurdity would draw negative attention. Who is going to think that they would have to tell their 6 yr olds that they can't play games they have played for most of their short lives.

[Dimensio]

"The court has affirmed what the board and district position has been all along, that we have the ability to make the decisions that are in the best interest of the children," Board of Education President Kevin Ciak said.

Doesn't this beg the question of why they don't make such decisions, then?

[Cable225]

1) any wagers that if these children were black they would have been suspended?

In Sayreville, it would have been a tough call what wins out, PC correctness for "zero tolerance" or, hmmmm, PC correctness for "racial tolerance". My guess, having lived in that God-forsaken liberal hole for five years, is that race would have beaten out zero tolerance, and the kids would at most, received a talking to.

[justshutupandtakeit]

I think you are correct.