Result of “thorough” suspension investigation is questioned
Board Hears Arguments in Student’s Appeal
River Hill High School student Phillip Ashtianie was accused last year of giving a bottle of Dasani filled with vodka to another student on a school bus. After a “thorough” investigation he was suspended for 45 days. Since it was at the end of the last school year the suspension was to continue through the beginning of this school year.
You may ask why I put “thorough” in quotes. I’m not normally one to use scare quotes but in this case they seem justified.
Throughout, Ashtianie maintained his innocence, a fact noted by the hearing examiner who found insufficient evidence to uphold the suspension.
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[School system attorney Marc Blom] argued that the evidence was very strong that Ashtianie distributed alcohol, even though the student who became ill recanted his charge twice that Ashtianie gave him the bottle.
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Blom also noted that this was the �most thorough� investigation conducted by Dr. Carl Cummings, who handles suspension hearings for the superintendent.He said Ashtianie�s mother�s [exonerating] investigation lacked credibility because it wasn�t professional and wasn�t objective, a charge [Attorney Allen Dyer, who represents the Ashtianies] called slanderous.
�Look at what the moms do for the Howard County public school system and determine how credible and what kind of quality there is,� said Dyer.
In questions from school board members, Blom acknowledged that Cummings interviewed Ashtianie and the student who drank the alcohol as well as school administrators, but no one else. Cummings also reviewed statements gathered by school staff.
Cummings testified before the hearing examiner that it �Basically came down to who do I believe.�
So a “thorough” (there’s those scare quotes again) investigation includes only the students involved and several people who were not there. Of the people who were interviewed who had actual knowledge of the incident the defendant consistently maintained his innocence and the victim eventually admitted the same. Information gained from the moms interviewing the actual kids who witnessed the event was disregarded.
This was enough to suspend a student for 45 days.
Blom also stated that the suspension was actually helpful as it “softened his transition to high school”. Egad, talk about shedding the last shred of respectability you might have walked in with.
Attorney Dyer maintains that Howard County policy requires a thorough investigation by the principal and a second investigation by the Superintendent or his designee. �Neither was done in this case,� he said.
The Board of Education has taken the matter under advisement and will issue its its decision shortly.
Ashtianie is seeking an apology, reimbursement of legal fees and a clean record. He also wants the board to change the way appeals are handled for students suspended over 10 days. Ashtianie benefited from a stay on the suspension granted by School Superintendent Sydney Cousin. He would like to see that consideration given to other students who must wait for their appeals to be heard by the Board.
If schools administrators are really worried about drugs and alcohol at school why isn’t there more adult supervision. Too often children are the only source of testimony and often their testmonies are not objective. Children who are considered credible are trusted for subjective reasons, without regard to whether they are truly objective and mature enough to have reasonable expectations and understand the consequences of their testimoney. A child who is complaining that a classmate is rude may be very shocked to have that complaint used to launch a zero tolerance action.
If we don’t teach children to live in a trusting adult society where the presumption of innocence is assumed, they will alway be acting on fear.
What is the proof that there was alcohol? It does not say anything about a test of any sort upon the intoxicated students person IE a breathalyzer.
I am the kid who was given the alcohol. No proof that it was alcohol? How is passing out in school, rolled out into an ambulance on a stretcher, which I then spent the whole day in the hospital, having to drink a quart of charcoal(opposed to getting my stomach pumped) and many more things that I can not remember (because I was passed out)
Phil was my best friend for 5 years. Police questioned me in the hospital many times, and I was called by several people at the school asking who it was. I never said a word. When we had the conference after my suspension was over, they already knew it was him because the people on the bus saw it. I was forced to sign it before I could return to school, leaving me no choice. Phil never believed me.
Why did I make a statement saying it wasn’t him?
When you’re in 8th grade, and everyone starts to reject you for something you didn’t do in the first place, then forced to agree with, you try to look for a way to fix things. I was told by him several times everything would be “cool” if I just wrote it and they couldn’t do anything else to me. So I did.
I was then called in to meet with the superintendant where he told me what would happen if what I wrote down this time, was the actual truth. After that went down, it didn’t seem like they couldn’t do anything to me, and I just wanted to get it over with, so I took it back and just went on with the truth.
That is the truth. Get over it.
Good one. I was on the bus that morning. Phil was not even close to the student who had the alcohol. The kid who had the alcohol(kyle), his friend, a girl, were very close they always sat next to eachother on the bus and the person kyle talked to that day was that girl. I was sitting next to phil and phil would of had to pass it to me, where I would of had to pass it 2 rows up and to the left to get it to kyle. Kyle, you didnt want to go down by yourself, so you blame it on the only person that you knew the principal would think it was because the principal knew phil and didnt like him because phil always never liked why he was blamed for the dumbest and smallest things at that school. Friends with him for 5 years? and you blame it on him. Good one, maybe you should investigate the girl who was sitting next to kyle, or we all know the real truth. You brought it on the bus because your whole family drinks. If you told on phil because he gave it to you, everyone would of forgave you. But the fact that you lied and said he gave it to you, no one will ever forgive you for that. Your a liar, and thats why no one wanted to be your friend. So stop keeping that lie for ever and ever.