Expelled for throwing a book bag
Student expelled, group says race played role
Dan Moncrease was a student at West Haven High School in the West Haven Public School District. He had a clean disciplinary record and played on the school football team. After an altercation with a teacher where he threw down his book bag he was suspended and then expelled.
Video from a school camera shows the incident. 18-year-old Dan Moncrease is walking the halls without a pass. Moncrease gets upset and throws his book bag near a teacher standing next to a cop.
“I admit I got out of hand,” says Dan Moncrease. “I threw my book bag, but I had no intention of hitting the teacher.”
The video shows the junior being arrested. He was initially suspended for ten days but later the Board of Education decided to expel him for 180 days with the stipulation he can go to an alternative school in his senior year.
He is also banned from playing football.
Throwing the book bag was foolish and disrespectful. It warranted some form of punishment but a ten day suspension was out of order, much less expelling him. If he had thrown it at the teacher I could understand this severe punishment but he didn’t even do that.
To add insult to injury they tacked a football ban on top of his expulsion so he won’t be able to play ball at the alternative school. What possible reason could they have for that? Some believe that this is an example of racial bias endemic to the school board.
But [Moncrease’s mother] Pauline Evans says her son’s punishment is too harsh, particularly his ban from football.
She says he has never been in trouble before and is being unfairly targeted by the school board because he’s an African American. Members of West Haven’s Black Coalition agrees.
“I’ve talked to students and parents who say it’s been going on for many years what we are seeing we need to correct it,” says Carroll E. Brown, West Haven Black Coalition.
Racist or not the punishment is ridiculously extreme for a hallway outburst.
Contact Information:
Note: West Haven provides no email contact for any administration members. These addresses are inferred from the school’s email scheme and may be incorrect.
Superintendent
Board Chairperson John Carrano
Vice Board Chairperson M. Toni Paine
Board Secretary/Treasurer Raymond Collins
Boardmember Robert Guthrie
Boardmember Anne M. Heffernan
Boardmember Howard Horvath
Boardmember Paul Messina
Boardmember George Monahan
Boardmember Krista Pickering
Principal Ronald A. Stancil
Assistant Principal Kurt Ogren
Assistant Principal Patricia Libero
Assistant Principal Dr. Patricia Whitney
An 18 year old physically intimidating authority doesn’t give me sympathy pains. If he had hit the teacher I believe we would call it assault and there would be a jail term.
I dont think that intimidation was his intent. it sounds like he was frustrated and threw his bag. A very childish think to do. Oh and look he is a child. granted a little old for such behavior, but none the less he did not intend to stike the teacher and he did not strike the teacher. GIve the kid detention and a talk with his school counciler to see if anyhthing further is warented. But expeled and kicked of the team, no my friend that is way to much.
Stress builds up in high school students vent, Were his actions apropriate no, was it grounds for such harsh discipline Hell no.
There was a teacher and a cop nearby.
The officer saw fit to detain the kid… for simply throwing down his bookbag in frustration?
Doubt it.
Show me the video, but before I can side with the kid, I gotta go with the cop and the teacher.
I have a harder time buying a kid with clean a record throwing a bag at a teacher espeacialy when a cop is there. I Imagine the cop detained him because the kid was upsett, and things just escelated. And The article mentions the teachers union says there was nothing raicialy motivated, but apparently a large part of the town thinks there was.
again I got to go with the town, how would the Union know, and what do they care what happens to a student. all they care about is that their members get what they think they are worth.
I hear you, I have certainly run into my share of lying school authority slime. The only think that made me think there was more than that was he admits he got out of hand. I don’t know what he meant by that. I guess I need to know how many feet we’re talking. If he tossed it a couple feet to the wall, there was no intent to hit someone. If he intentionally tried to startle someone with a 30 lb bookbag that’s different.
That’s my point.
It’s hard to pick a side without having been there, isn’t it?
What do we know? Two authority figures were present (a teacher and a police officer) who both are giving testimony that the kid was out of line and threatening. A kid who admits he was out of line, but says he wasn’t threatening.
So… should we all jump to side with a high school kid? Let’s not forget, this site provides a somewhat skewed view of education — there are a boatload of public schools in the US and a bazillion teachers, administrators, and officers that are doing a great job and being infulential in our kids’ lives. We’re seeing the very small percentage that aren’t. Is this a story about a teacher and a police officer who are conspiring against a child, or is it more likely that the kid was actually out of line?
Without being there, I don’t think we can make a proper conclusion. I also don’t think that we can say that the teacher and officer are in the wrong, either. Most likely, in this case, they are very much in the right. Most likely…
Two authority figures were present (a teacher and a police officer) who both are giving testimony that the kid was out of line and threatening.
We actually don’t know this either. There are no notes on what the testimony of the school officials was, only a description of what was on the security tape.
The link to the WTNH article has a link to their on-air segment, which includes the security tape. From the tape, it does look like the kid was throwing the bag at the teacher, or at least in a way that could easily have been construed as such by the teacher and the policeman. As the student comes towards her she moves back and to her left. (He’s definately larger than her, and when angry rather intimidating.) The bag lands to the right of the teacher, but slightly to the left of where she was when he starts moving and throwing. It looks like she could have been hit if she hadn’t moved in time.
So I suppose one question is, especialy given that the young man is 18, if he had done this outside of school, in front of a policeman, would he have been arrested, and if so, is the school’s punishment comparable to the treatment he would have received from the judicial system?
what the hell
what the fuck