ZeroIntelligence.net

Cake Knife Gets Girls Banned From Baccalaureate

Ashley Pickens and Candace Grier, seniors at Martin Luther King, Jr. High School in the Dekalb County Public School District, brought a cake to school. They found a butter knife in the school’s band room to serve it but were unable to return it as the door had been locked. A teacher discovered the knife and wrote the girls up. They were then suspended for 10 days and banned from baccalaureate ceremonies under the school’s zero tolerance weapon policy.

“[The teacher] said it really didn’t matter [that it was used for a cake],” Pickens said. “[He said] it’s a knife on school grounds, and you have to be written up for it — you ought to be glad we didn’t have you arrested.”

Both girls accepted the 10-day suspension, volunteering at a homeless shelter during that time, but they and their parents think this is a case of zero tolerance gone overboard.

“The knife was not brought to school,” said Wendy Pickens, Ashley’s mother. “The knife was in the band suite. When they finished washing the items, the band suite doors were closed. They couldn’t return it.”

Dekalb superintendent Dr. Crawford Lewis upheld the suspension and ban with one exception. The girls will be allowed to attend graduation ceremonies.

Contact Information:
Principal Sylvester Nelloms

(Tip credit to Eric DeMar, Jason Trommetter, Bob Laurence and Opinion Journal)

Teen suspended for wearing ‘freedom of expression’ T-shirt

Hanna Smith, a junior at Tift County High School in the Tift County School District, was suspended for a day for wearing “disruptive clothing”. Her T-shirt had several slogans on it including “don’t drink and drive” and “freedom of expression”.

[Principal Mike Duck] confirmed that Smith was back in class on May 6 without the banned T-shirt, which also had a peace symbol on the front and “Veritas,” which means truth, written on the back.
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Duck said he could not comment on the suspension.

“We can’t discuss children and their issue,” he said. “It’s a matter of privacy and protection of their rights.”

The school system’s dress code forbids disruptive clothing, grooming and symbols. Principals decide what’s disruptive.

“I have an obligation to maintain an orderly environment,” Duck said. “The courts give me the authority and the right to make those decisions and as long as I’m sitting in this chair that’s what I’m going to do.”

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Zero tolerance leaves little room for self-defense

Self defense is a legal right that has been trampled by zero tolerance policies. In Henry County Schools there have been 764 hearings for fighting over the past several years. Only 29 students have ever been cleared. This number includes all pleas including self defense.

Preston Malcom, assistant superintendent for administrative services for Henry County schools, said that students can claim self-defense during disciplinary hearings, but said that it must be more than a “simple declaration.”
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“The burden is on the person making the claim,” Malcom said. “The burden is not on the school system.”

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Mother’s call gets son in hot water
Student suspended over call from mom in Iraq

Updated 09 May 2005: Student’s penalty reduced to 3 day suspension. Details at bottom of post.

17 year-old Kevin Francois, a student at Spencer High School in the Muscogee County School District, was suspended for disorderly conduct after refusing to hang up on his overseas mother. Kevin’s mother only gets the opportunity to call him about once a month and the times are very irregular.

The incident happened when Francois received a call from his mother at 12:30 p.m., which he said was his lunch break. Francois said he went outside the school building to get a better reception when his mother called. A teacher who saw Francois on his phone told him to get off the phone. But he didn’t.
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Francois said he told the teacher, “This is my mom in Iraq. I’m not about to hang up on my mom.”

Francois said the teacher tried to take the phone, causing it to hang up.

The student said he then went with the teacher to the school’s office where he surrendered his phone. His mother called again at 12:37 p.m. and left a message scolding her son about hanging up and telling him to answer the phone when she calls.

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Grade controversy at Dacula

Larry “Doc” Neace, a Dacula High School physics teacher, has been banned from Gwinnet County Public School District campuses. His decade old policy of reducing grades for students who disrupt class or waste class time was applied to the wrong student - a star football player.

[Sloan Roach, spokeswoman for the district] said the dispute began after Neace handed out an assignment that was due the next day. One student fell asleep during class the day the assignment was made, but turned in the work on time, she said. The student earned a perfect score, but Neace reduced the mark by half because the student fell asleep in class, she said.

“This action is a direct contradiction to the school system’s policy on grading,” Roach said.

Neace said he developed his own policy about 10 years ago that students who waste time in class — by sleeping, playing games or engaging in other mindless activities — receive a penalty grade. The penalty can be a zero or half credit depending on the assignment, he said.

Several students have received zeroes and half credits this school year, Neace said.

“I’ve never been reprimanded or punished or told to change the grade before,” Neace said.

Roach said she did not know why Neace’s actions were challenged this time. She said additional facts will be presented during Thursday’s hearing.

The boy’s father complained and school administration ordered Neace to raise the student’s grade. When he repeatedly refused to follow these instructions he was barred from all school property.

This isn’t cut and dried. Although Neace’s lawyer claims this is all about protecting a coddled football player it is certainly possible but it’s just a case of the squeaky wheel getting the grease. Gwinnett policy is to not discipline students with grade adjustments but Neace has been using this system for a decade with no interference from the administration. So what is the truth? My guess is that it lies somewhere in the middle.

Occam’s Razor says: Neace’s policy was never called into question before because whatever administrators knew of it did not know about the district policy it broke. This was simply the first time a student (parent) complained to the school board and had taken the time to look up the applicable rules.

(Tip credit to David Leonard)

High School To Pay Student Informants For Tips On Campus Crime

Model High School in the Floyd County School District is implementing a fink policy. They will pay informants up to $100 for turning in their classmates for policy and criminal violations.

“It’s not that we feel there are any problems here,” said Principal Glenn White. “It’s a proactive move for getting information that will help deter any sort of illegal activity.”

Under the new policy, a student would receive $10 for information about a theft on campus, $25 or $50 for information about drug possession, and $100 for information about gun possession or other serious felonies.

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High School Senior Expelled for Ammunition on Campus

Tim Herndon, a student at Bryan County High School in the Bryan County School District, took his father’s truck to school. That fateful day happened to be when a random drug search was being conducted. The truck was searched and some ammunition left in the truck from his father’s hunting expeditions was found under a pile of work gear. Tim was expelled for violating the school’s zero tolerance weapons policy.

“Hunting season’s been over for a few weeks and my husband drives that truck every single day, and he has his jackets in there and his hard hats and all that stuff, so it was buried underneath there,” said Daphne.

And before Tim knew what was going on, he was pulled out of class and told his father’s car needed to be searched. “That’s when the dogs came and the police came and they found bullets in there,” he told us. “After it all happened, they took me to the principal’s office.”

The family hopes to get Tim back into school and are considering hiring a lawyer. I strongly encourage them to do so.

Honor student arrested in connection with menacing note

A middle school student at Pointe South Middle School in the Clayton County School District made a list of people who made her angry.

The girl, a gifted student, created the list of 12 or 13 names of students, said something about the list to other students and then tore it up and throw it away, Clayton County schools spokesman Charles White said.

But after members of the school administration learned of the incident, they conducted interviews and reassembled the list before turning it over to Clayton County police, White said.

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Who Pays When Students Get Hurt?
School Law Again Comes Under Fire

Who are the Kings of Georgia? Not the Governor, not the State Legislature, not even Ted Turner or the folks at Coca-Cola. The true Kings of Georgia are the school systems. Georgia’s Constitution gives them “sovereign immunity”, an archaic system that sets them above the law of the land, just like the tyrants of ages past.

At the age of 15, David Dollar has a new perspective on life after losing sight in his right eye.
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He was injured during science class at South Forsyth Middle School in May when his teacher took his class outside to launch bottle rockets.
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The metal clip struck him in his right eye, and although surgeons were able to save his eye during emergency surgery, they could not restore his sight.
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School officials referred the matter to their insurance company — Utica National– which responded with a letter that stated, “While we regret the injury to your son, we are unable to provide payment of any medical expenses. Medical payments coverage is not available to students who are injured on school premises.”
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“State law is very clear that you can’t use funds that are to go for school purposes to pay somebody’s medical bills in a case like this,� said Phil Hartley, an attorney who represents the Forsyth County School System.

While he won’t talk about specifics in the dollar case, he says immunity also protects school employees, even if they’re negligent.

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No exceptions with zero tolerance

Updated 03 December 2004: Penny Blackmon has commented. Update at bottom of post.

Jade Blackmon, a student in the Worth County School System, has been suspended for 12 weeks, expelled from her school and faces felony weapons charges. A pocketknife was found in her purse at school. Jade claims to have no knowledge of the knife.

When Jade Blackmon was arrested on the school campus, it became more than a school discipline issue. It became a legal issue. Now Jade is facing a felony charge. She’ll wear a house arrest system until she goes to court.

But if Jade is telling the truth, that she had never seen the knife found in her purse that day, is a law meant to keep her safe at school turning out to take an unfair toll on her childhood?

“These laws cut very harshly sometimes, there are procedures and due process procedures where, that are designed to get at the facts,” [school board attorney Tommy] Coleman said.

The fact is, Jade could spend months fighting a charge she says isn’t fair.

“I knew that you weren’t suppose to bring weapons to school, but I knew that the knife wasn’t mine.”

But with zero tolerance laws, it may not matter. That’s a lesson Jade is learning the hard way.

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