Watching an off-campus fight gets seventeen students expelled
Year-long expulsion unfair, students argue
Colorado law allows schools to expel students for “behavior on or off school property which is detrimental to the welfare or safety or morals of other pupils or of school personnel.” Adams County School District 14 used this law to expel 17 students from Adams City High School for their involvement in an off-campus fight. Every student involved in the fight in any capacity whatsoever, from students who drove friends to the area to students who watched to the students who actually fought, were given the same maximum punishment.
The parents received a letter dated Feb. 25 that explained the expulsion and described the boys as “detrimental to the safety” of other students and staff. It incensed most of the parents, said [mother Elisa] Flores, whose sons are typical high schoolers and haven’t been in trouble with police.
Those letters, signed by Adams 14 Assistant Superintendent Cindi Seidel, were sent in error, said [Superintendent John] Lange.
That’s quite an error. Oops! I drafted a letter to seventeen parents expelling their kids and saying they were a danger to their classmates. Oops! I signed them too. Oops! Now they’re in envelopes. Oops! Looks like I accidentally put them through the stamping machine. Oops! In the mailbox they go. Wow, I sure did make a bad error. [/sarcasm]
The students have been out of school almost two months, which parents say is long enough for watching a fight.
Juana Hernandez hopes there are options for her ninth-grade son, a suspended spectator.
“I don’t think it’s right,” said Luis Alberto Hernandez, 14. “I’m not in a gang or anything. We watched the fight.”
These kids have been out of school for two entire months for witnessing a fight that did not occur at school and did not occur during school hours. Meanwhile the school system is “questioning whether all of them should remain on suspension”? I’m questioning whether these administrators should remain employed.
Contact information:
Superintendent Dr.John Lange
Assistant Superintendent Cindi Seidel
Board of Education generic email contact
My god this stupid. I cant believe the parent or the kids went along with it. I dont how many times called in for “Fighting” The worst I ever Got was a three day suspension, and that was because it was in the classroom. Detention campus clean up maybe, but if it is after school and not on school grounds they need to keep out of it.
one little thing NEVER show up to school when you are suspended aperently it can get very ugly very fast
Another newspaper article said the discussion about the fight started in school and the fight began during lunch off campus. Apparently, there is a lot of gang activity and some kid was murdered near the school a year or so ago.
I just wonder why the parents of the students waited two months to do something. The article said that students could use tutors or on-line learning to keep up with their school work.
I’ve read so many of these posts where students are expelled for a period of time just because some crazed administrator has let power go to his/her head. This puts a serious blight on the students’ records and may affect their ability to get into college, get a job, etc. I wonder how many of the parents of these wronged students have turned the expulsions into an opportunity to yank their kids out of public school and do what they should be doing in the first place: either educate them at home or send them to a private school. Would you send your kids back to this school, if you were one of the parents?
As usual, I temper this by saying don’t give me any crap about parents not able to homeschool because both parents “need” to work, or not being able to afford private school. If you value your kids you’ll sacrifice anything to keep them safe, and for a myriad of reasons I don’t think they’re safe in public schools.
Good luck to these 17 kids and their parents.
I think the best thing a parent can do is realize that these policies exist, that they are pervasive, that they can be very detrimental to their child (whether or not that child has ever been in trouble before — doesn’t matter), that the people who administer them are not the best and brightest in the world of academia and that they have absolutely no compunction about ruining a kid’s future forever if they have to. As far as I’m concerned, today’s public school administrator is lower than a duck’s tail as far as character is concerned. They are paid big bucks to exercise some judgment, and then they hide behind zero tolerance. Parents should also ask why they are paying their salaries. An office clerk could call the cops and have a kid arrested. Why pay someone $100,000 a year to do so?
Black parents realize that these policies hurt their kids, although I think they hurt everyone equally. The biggest growth in homeschooling is from the black community and they mention zero-tolerance as one of the reasons.
“GO TO SCHOOL — BECOME A CRIMINAL!” How’s that for a t-shirt?
Let find out who’s watching wrestling on tv and get them too.
I like it:
“GO TO SCHOOL — BECOME A CRIMINAL!” How’s that for a t-shirt?
“GO TO SCHOOL — THE FASTEST PATH TO JAIL”
I stil like the zero tolerance gorrila:
http://zerointelligence.net/archives/000332.php
Not that I support the school in their response, but there is another perspective on this, depending on what the alleged spectators were doing. Several years ago, in Falls River, MA, there was a notorious gang rape in a bar, where the other patrons basically surrounded the scene and cheered the assailants on. The ’spectators’ were charged and convicted, the exact charges I can’t recall. They made a movie about it, starring Jody Foster and Kelly McGillis (I think it was called “The Accused”) Anyway, I find myself wondering about this situation in light of that one.
Apparently the state dept. of education is checking this story out. Hopefully, heads will roll.