Posted on 03/20/2002 6:45:35 AM PST by Tumbleweed_Connection
Ha,Ha Glad that got by the editor.
Force this district to back down or tar and feather its officials. Literally. Band parents together to force this student back into his school. Fierce civil disobedience may be the only thing these people understand.
Expelled for a knife foundin the bed of his truck? Any kid driving a pickup truck in that school district is at risk now to pranks by any classmate flipping anything from a pocketknife to a marijuana cigarette into the bed of his truck! Indeed, a kid could be at the mall when the offending article was planted there by a classmate as a prank!
Anyone heard of anything this stupid at a parochial school?
Technically, he wasn't - depending on how you divide the sentence.
(Of course, he is probably better off without this type of "publick edumacation".)
[Full Text] BEDFORD - The Hurst-Euless-Bedford schools superintendent said Tuesday that administrators' hands are tied in cases involving zero-tolerance policies.
The acknowledgement followed the expulsion of an honor student who was found to have a knife on school property earlier this month.
During a news conference Tuesday, Gene Buinger said that if school district administrators could untie state policies that sometimes bind their hands in student disciplinary matters, many of them might.
But they can't.
"School districts need more discretion as to the length of penalty, and how that penalty is carried out," said Dr. Buinger, who also said he would support adjusting the law.
Honor student Taylor Hess of L.D. Bell High School in Hurst was expelled from school after officials found a 10-inch bread knife with a nonserrated blade in the bed of his pickup while it was parked on campus.
Robert Hess, Taylor's father, said the knife was left behind after the two helped move the student's grandmother from Cedar Hill to the Bedford area.
Taylor, who was given a one-year expulsion, could end up in the Tarrant County Juvenile Justice Alternative Education Program. A hearing regarding the matter is scheduled for Thursday.
"He's been victimized," Mr. Hess said. "He feels let down."
The knife was turned over to Hurst police, who said they would not pursue criminal action against Taylor.
"There has to be intent," said Lt. Steve Moore of the Hurst police department. "This seems to be more of a bad accident than anything."
H-E-B district administrators said district policy and the Texas Education Code prohibit a student from possessing an illegal knife, one with a blade longer than 5 and a half inches that is "designed to cut or stab another by being thrown," according to the Texas Penal Code.
The Texas Education Code and the district's student code of conduct also states that a student found to have such a knife "must be expelled."
Dr. Buinger did not discuss Taylor's case specifically Tuesday, but he did offer details about laws and policies that lead to the expulsion of students who have knifes on campus.
The district may not substitute alternative punishment for such matters, Dr. Buinger said. The policies are not the creation of local school districts, but are instead required by Texas law, he added.
"In an effort to create safe schools, the state legislature and Congress ... have basically tied the hands of the school district and local administrators who best know the student," Dr. Buinger said.
The district does have some latitude regarding the time-length of punishment, a matter that has been brought into question because of Taylor's expulsion that is set for one-year.
Until the law changes, districts will have to follow the zero-tolerance policy as it is written, Dr. Buinger said.
But that makes no sense, said Sharon Overath, a parent with a student at L.D. Bell. "I understand zero-tolerance, but I think you can take something to an extreme," Ms. Overath said. "We need to look at the total student and a student's record should carry some weight.
"I don't want to hear we can't make an exception, because we do it all the time with plea bargaining and the justice system."
Some say the zero-tolerance policy doesn't allow room for innocent mistakes or coincidence.
"At first, I thought [zero-tolerance] was great, because I support anything that will keep firearms and weapons out of the schools, but now I don't know," said Kimberley Moore."I have a son who's a senior who has been a honor student since the ninth grade and I'm just thinking if this happened to him and he was suspended, I would be upset," she said.
The policy not only leaves little room for discussion, but also lumps "bad kids and good kids in the same group," said Ms. Overath, who has five children in the school district.
"We're just taking a broad brush and drawn it across the whole board," she added. [End]
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I think this law will be changed.
Orthodoxy is unconsciousness
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