Forgotten hobby knife and nail clippers earn student an expulsion
Expelled student’s fate due today
Updated 31 May 2005: Student expelled, family protests. Details at bottom of post.
14-year-old freshman Sahib Brown Jr., a student at Easton Area High School in the Easton Area School District, found an Exacto knife in the hallway. He put it in his backpack with the intent of turning it over to his teacher but then forgot about it. A month later a schoolwide search resulted in the art knife and (horror of horros) a set of nail clippers being discovered. Sahib was immediately suspended for 10 days and then expelled indefinitely under the school’s zero tolerance weapons policy.
The suspension didn’t sit well with the Browns, but they ultimately accepted the punishment.
It wasn’t until Sahib Jr.’s suspension was nearly over that he and his parents got a letter from the school district that shocked them.
“I was really surprised that, two days prior to the suspension being over, we got a letter for an expulsion hearing,” said Brown Sr.
During the hearing, school officials told the Browns that Sahib Jr.’s actions endangered other students and that he would be kicked out of school indefinitely. The average to above average student who had never before been in trouble was then barred from setting foot on school property, his father said.
Teachers called to give their condolences but none of them spoke in Sahib’s defense during the expulsion hearing. The Browns will learn today how long Sahib’s expulsion will be.
Contact Information:
Principal William Rider
Superintendent Dennis Riker
School Board President George Bright
School Board Member Dr. Brooks
School Board Member Alfred Capecci
School Board Member A. Roy Cortez
School Board Member Patricia Fisher
School Board Member Dawn Heim
School Board Member Timothy Reilly
School Board Member Richard Siegfried
School Board Member Dr. Pat Vulcano Jr.
UPDATE 31 May 2005
Parent questions zero-tolerance policy
Sahib Brown Jr was expelled for the remainder of the school year as punishment for possession of a pair of deadly weapons - an Exacto art knife and nail clippers.
Sahib Brown Sr. held a sign outside the Easton Area School District administration building Monday that read “Judge By Character Not Just Columbine.”
Sahib Brown Sr., of the 1300 block of Northampton Street, was one of five family members picketing outside the administration building to protest the expulsion of his son, Sahib Brown Jr.
The elder Sahib Brown said he wants district officials to view expulsion as the last alternative when disciplining students.
Sahib senior also pointed out that the teacher who allowed the Exacto knife out of his classroom should be disciplined. District Superintendent Dennis Riker did not respond to the suggestion.
As for the younger Sahib Brown’s claim that he simply found the knife, Riker said it would be wrong for the boy to have a beer can on his desk even if it was not his.
Is Riker intimating that an empty beer can is also an expulsion level offense?
Riker said it is “very difficult” for district officials to decide to expel a student.
…
But Riker said the school district ultimately has to do what is in the best interests of the entire student body when dealing with weapons, drugs and alcohol.
Automatic 10-day suspension followed by an automatic indefinite expulsion pending a hearing for a permanent expulsion. Why, that doesn’t sound difficult at all.
What!!!!! the poor kid found the knife, was gonna turn it in but forgot about it….. and
a nail clipper, how the heck is that
dangerous
It wasn’t dangerous, except to the moronic administrators who run that district. If you think about it…you have to assume what we hear about is just a small sampling of what is reported, and that scares me to death.
Thank God for the administrators and teachers who have common sense and have found their way to our community and schools at Wimberley Independent School District in Wimberley, TX.
The parents should tell there children
that if they find anything in school
that could be dangerous, just shut up and
don’t say a word, if somone gets hurt, it’s
not there problem. My wife is an elementary
school teacher and they are terrified to say
anything about the system. My wife and her co workers probably wouldn’t say anything on a good student’s behalf because there cowards and are to afraid to find another job, which in this area are a dime a dozen.
The thing that gets me is the staement “A school wide search” What happened to probable cause?
Just a thought.
I was just going to say that Homer. Apparently school officials aren’t well-versed in the Fourth Amendment.
Although its absurd, school officials only recquire “reasonable suspicion” which can be just about anything because, unlike “probable cause,” it does not recquire anything “specific”. They have this privelage because public schools are government institutions with special regulations. These regulations are automatically agreed upon by the students (and parents) in attending and enrolling in the school.
Has this resolved yet?
Unfortunately there was no follow-up story published.
I say this a lot, but it needs to be said until some case gets to the high court and ends all this madness.
If the parents of this kid are reading this: LAWYER UP and KEEP APPEALING TILL YOU WIN.
Past cases from around the country have proven that the only way to get justice in cases like this is through a lawsuit. When they’re looking at punative damages, school officials suddenly begin to see reason.
This doesn’t surprise me, considering that it comes from Easton, PA. I live only a few miles north of Easton and I’ve grown accustomed to hearing news like this from there. From questionable moves by their city council to a police force that has been in the papers over the last three years for police brutality to cops shooting each other in their station, Easton has a reputation as a city to avoid in eastern Pennsylvania.
I think that Michael’s comment puts it most accurately. Administrators want everyone to stay silent, and common sense is non-existent. Last Friday was my last day in the public education system, and I have no intention of going back.
Add my 18 yr old sister to the list of victims of this policy.
She had a hobby pocket knife with a 3/4″ long blade buried in her backpack (she’d borrowed it from a friend to cut a string and forgotten she had it) and when some girls (who didn’t like her) decided to cause trouble for her, it was found and she was immediately expelled from school - DAYS before her Senior Finals, Senior Day, PROM and GRADUATION.
Despite having spent hundreds of dollars on graduations pictures, invitations, cap and gown and other clothing, my sister was DENIED the right to attend her own prom and graduation. Despite the school having DROPPED any charges against her for having the “knife”.
She was almost denied her career in the Navy because of this nonsense. The school hemmed and hawed for TWO WEEKS before dropping the charges - they waited until the very DAY that the Navy gave as its final deadline (if the charges weren’t dropped by that day, she’d have been booted out of the early enlistment program and LOST all of her entitlements and career choices).
Thank you, Cleveland Tennessee School District, for denying my baby sister her ONE AND ONLY high school graduation. What a bunch of morons.
Although it is sometimes silly to judge, children are quite clever at times. Has anyone considered that children do lie at times? Let me just post a hypothetical - suppose that child were to have lied about “finding” the exacto knife and planned to actually use it? I think that scenario would result in a different response from each an every parent. Although not every situation is a Columbine incident, there are times that everyone needs to follow a strict guideline policy because I believe that it is in the best interests of all the other children!
the moral of the story : apathy is a good thing.
I see in this tale also one of the most common issues of the day, owning up to responsibility. Regardless of whether this child really forgot about a tool he found or brought it with the intention of using it for some other reason, if it was school property, why didn’t the teacher in charge account for its return at the end of class? If he/she didn’t and its policy, then the responsibility falls squarely on the shoulders of the administrator who did not make zero tolerance apply to both parties who erred. Exacto knives should either be removed from the school and other projects that don’t use weapon-like tools be substituted, or the teacher who issues them to students should have to be accountable for the return and proper containment of all. Then there would be no doubt about whether the exacto knife was found, as stated, or brought, as suggested. Seems this particular administration doesn’t want to, publically at least, share in the blame. The fact that I’ve heard no statement that all school knives were accounted for leads me to believe that the school may have in fact been careless and doesn’t enforce “zero tolerance” with its own, whcih isn’t fair to the student. If they did state that that it’s not a school knife, then I apologize and what are we still talking about this for??!! But now a family, if the child is being truthful, will be devastated for this. Hmmm….