Mom appeals son's expulsion from school

Greeley Tribune ^ | 3/4/03 | Jennifer Stanley

[NorCoGOP]

Lova Zahary doesn’t look like a fighter.

Neither does her son, Mitch Muller. The 13-year-old is lanky and already taller than his 5-feet-1 mother. He tends to clam up around strangers.

But fight they will. The two filed a lawsuit against the Valley Re-1 School District board Friday, hoping to overturn Mitch’s expulsion for playing with a gun-shaped laser pointer in school.

“I hate that I’ve been put in this position because we’ve supported the district for close to 10 years,” she said. “But I don’t feel like school districts should be able to bully people. I never thought I had it in me, but sometimes you find strength you never thought you had.”

On Nov. 19, a teacher caught the La Salle seventh-grader playing with the tiny laser pointer during class. She reported Mitch and two other boys to North Valley Middle School Principal Bruce Hankins.

After a hearing, Mitch was expelled for one year. A month later, the school board upheld the administration’s decision.

Mitch completed a six-week alternative program in Greeley that allowed him to return to school Jan. 20. Still, his mother wants his record wiped clean.

“I just feel like if the punishment had fit the crime, I would have supported the school. I just feel like we never got a fair shake from the school district,” Zahary said. “Sure it shouldn’t have been brought to school. But it’s hard sometimes for 13-year-old boys to look ahead and think, ‘It looks like a gun and I shouldn’t play with it.’ ”

The school district’s attorney, Robert Cohn of Denver, would not comment Monday afternoon because he had not yet seen a copy of the complaint filed in Weld District Court.

The Tribune left messages Monday for Superintendent Jo Barbie and three of the district’s six school board members, but none returned the calls.

Attorney Todd Taylor of Greeley is representing Mitch and his mother and is a participating attorney with the Virginia-based Rutherford Institute. The organization represents people in civil rights cases, including zero tolerance.

Taylor argues that the laser pointer was too small to be mistaken for a weapon and that board members violated Colorado’s open meetings laws when they failed to conduct the appeal hearing in public.

Local public bodies, including school boards, may close meetings for certain reasons unless the person involved asks that it be open, according to Colorado law.

Boards may close meetings to discuss individual students if disclosure would adversely affect the person or persons involved.

During the Jan. 15 appeal hearing, Taylor asked that it be held in public. He said the attention could not adversely affect Mitch because the boy and his mother had already participated in interviews with local and state media and appeared on national television.

The board disagreed.

Taylor also says the school district violated Mitch’s right to due process when administrators failed to provide Mitch’s written statement and other evidence before the expulsion hearing.

“There’s no way of countering those in an effective way because they didn’t give us access,” he said.

Mitch and his mother are asking the court to remove the expulsion from Mitch’s record, pay attorney fees and other related costs.

[kennyo]

Usually you have to fight to REMOVE your children from the government schools.What she really ought to do is thank the School Board profusely for saving her the trouble.Then they'd probably want to "reconsider".

[Mo1]

He was expelled for a YEAR because of a laser pointer ??

[LTCJ]

He was expelled for a YEAR because of a laser pointer ??

Relax. It was an EVIL, GUN-SHAPED laser pointer.

[wbill]

With administrators like these, I feel safer already.

[demosthenes the elder]

1. He should have had immediate detention for one week for doing something in class besides take notes or study
2. He should have been publicly spanked by the Principal for playing with a laser pointer - they are mildly dangerous in and of themselves, but for many of us older people, a little red dot showing up on our bodies explicitly means "a gun is pointed at you" - and given an additional week of detention.
3. He should have been grounded AND spanked by his parents, simply because he needs to learn that it is impolite to point anything at anyone.

However, he did not need to be suspended for a year, or be forced to go through some touchie-feelie communist indoctrination program.

[demosthenes the elder]

beer?

[Wolfie]

But it’s hard sometimes for 13-year-old boys to look ahead and think, ‘It looks like a gun and I shouldn’t play with it.’ ”

So many jokes, so little time.

[mhking]

This is the same mother that will look at the judge and say, "...he didn't mean to shoot that other child...don't send my child to jail..."

Idiot.

"Hold muh beer 'n watch this!" PING....

If you want on or off this list, please let me know!

[The_Victor]

This is my weapon
This is my gun
This one's for shootn'
This one's for fun.

[hopespringseternal]

I can't imagine giving retards like this control of my children's education.

[kmiller1k]

I'm do not know what the rules are at this middle school, but in my local district the rules are emphatic--no laser pointers are allowed on campus and no weapons or look alikes on campus. My best guess, this young man knew the rules and about zero tolerance and still chose to bring the laser to school and then play with it in class.

Can you imagine the arrogance involved in the decision to have a gun shaped laser pointer in the current political environment? He is lucky to allowed back to his original middle school.

[Tax-chick]

But I don’t feel like school districts should be able to bully people

But what else are they for? All of compulsory schooling is bullying.

Say thank you, get the kid a library card, and sign him up for a shooting class, where he can learn some discipline. He's certainly not going to learn it in school!

[jagrmeister]

You seem to relish the idea of spanking. First, he gets spanked by the principal. Then, he gets spanked by his parents. Then, the whole neighboorhood should get to spank him assembly-line-style. Who next? The kid is 13 years old! Spanking - it's good for what ails you.

[demosthenes the elder]

Spanking (or, for children of this age, switching and belt-whipping) works wonders on the young human animal.
Humans are born with no "better angels of their natures" to which one may appeal. Humans are born with a wide ranging and multifaceted instinct for self-preservation. That instinct can be TRAINED INTO a "better angel" through careful indoctrination involving rewarding good behavior, ignoring the merely acceptable, and sternly punishing bad behavior. The twin principles of positive and negative reinforcement - surely you have heard of them at some point?
Pain, humiliation, and fear of repeated infliction of pain and humiliation are all extremely useful tools of discipline to which all intelligent mammals respond, most especially humans.
Failure to use these tools robs the adults responsible from turning the young human animal into a functional adult citizen dooms the enterprise of child-rearing to a high rate of failure.
Witness the current decline in our culture, directly linked and proportionate to the rise of the prevalence of "esteem" based child-rearing and the progressive (meant both ways) elimination of negative reinforcement disciplinary training methods.

[irishtenor]

We had a kid expelled for a year in Washington because he brought a gun to school... it was a play G.I.Joe gun about an inch long, but it was a gun!!! (At least it looked like one)

[ladylib]

I bet a lot of today's public school students won't want these people to control their children's public school education either:

http://www.educationnews.org/WHY-STUDENTS-REBEL-(26).htm

[demosthenes the elder]

gad. I think I remember hearing about this one.

[demosthenes the elder]

that's a good read.