My first supposition when this story broke was that this kid, Martin, was out that night to buy drugs and that that was the main reason he was scared about Zimmerman following him.
Why? Well, it’s Sanford for one. Drug candystore of Central Florida.
This kid was out on a mission to 7/11. In the rain. The closest 7/11 is almost two miles away. A round trip walk in the dark close to 4 miles. There is a neighborhood “corner store” that is a little closer but I think that they roll up the sidewalks early and shutter their doors and windows to avoid any early evening druggies looking to heist. A walk to either store provides lots of opportunities to buy drugs.
And then there is the week-long suspension from school that brought Martin to Anacostia on the St Johns to begin with. A week long suspension for being late to class. I find that hard to believe but it is Miami and they’ve about reached the end of their rope when it comes to tolerating misbehavior. Maybe Soldierdad can comment on that.
Hopefully the cops have been searching the complex area for drugs during their search for clues.
I can't speak to that school district's policy, or to that particular student's attendance record. I do know by experience that students can and are suspended for nonsense reasons. My sons (2) received three day suspensions for fighting while in high school. The "fight" occurred after school while they waited for their mother to pick them up. The "fight" consisted of the two of them arguing over, if I recall correctly, an article of clothing that one had borrowed from the other. There were no punches thrown. They did not posture towards each other. It was simply an argument between siblings. It was witnessed by a campus monitor, who called for the youth service officer, who took the two of them to the principal, and they were suspended. At one of the elementary schools I work at (different district) a second grade student was suspended for five days for bringing a butter knife to school. I read a story about a kindergarten student being suspended for five days for a drawing dipicting a hunting scene. There was a recent story about a father who was arrested because his daughter had drawn a picture of a gun. Do schools go overboard? Yes. Sometimes they do.