My main comment on this thread has very simple and very limited, and that is that this punishment was too severe for this one incident. If there is a pattern of bad behavior that was also taken into account, then it might not have been too severe. But I have seen nothing that indicates the punishment relates to anything other than this one incident.
I am amazed at the number of adults who are willing to proclaim that these kids just have to be guilty of all sorts of other transgressions, and that they just have to be some of the worst kids ever to darken the halls of a middle school.
And all the products of these adult imaginations and prejudices become all mixed up in what verdict they render for these kids. Not much clear thinking going on; just a lot of pontificating based on pre-conceived notions and disgust with the general lack of discipline in most schools.
...but that is not saying the school board does not have that knowledge.
Where I teach, we have students that have gone on home instruction after repeated, with a capital R, violations of school rules.
One or two kids have been remanded to alternative school but that was done through the judicial system.