Legislator asks leniency for boy suspended over knife
A fourth-grade student at Wakelee Elementary School in the Wolcott School District was suspended for 10 days for violating the school’s zero tolerance policy against weapons. His mother had packed a Boy Scout utensil kit with his lunch.
His mother, Rebecca Glendening, said she thought she had removed the knife attached to the kit, but instead she had mistakenly removed a can-opener tool.
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[State Rep. John] Mazurek, D-Wolcott, is asking Wolcott school officials to reconsider the 10-day-suspension.
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The boy did not violate the policy; his mother did, Mazurek wrote Thursday in a letter to Board of Education members.
“What possibly good could come out of this boy serving a 10-day suspension?” wrote Mazurek
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School Officials Ban Photo Of Female Student Wearing Tuxedo
Decision To Bar Picture Of Student In Tuxedo Stands
Mother To Appeal Senior Picture Decision
Principal Sam Ward of Fleming Island High School in the Clay County School District decided that Kelli Davis’s yearbook picture would not be permitted. The openly lesbian student wore a tuxedo for the photo instead of the approved female drape. Keri Sewell, a senior and student editor for the yearbook, was fired for objecting to the removal of the picture.
The county school board and its superintendent backed the decision, which was debated at a Thursday night School Board meeting attended by about 200 people.
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School officials have maintained that sexual preference is not the issue, it is gender. They said since Davis did not follow the rules on dress, she will not be in the yearbook.
Bruce Bickner, an attorney representing the School Board, said there is no written dress code for senior pictures, but also said the district gives principals the authority to set standards.
Kelli’s picture will still appear in the yearbook. Her mother bought a two page spread in the book for around $1000 and the tuxedo photo will appear there.
(Tip credit to Huebner and Delusional Duck)
Food Fight Illegal? Five Students Face Charges
A recent 60-second food fight involving dozens of students at Kings High School in the Kings Local School District has resulted in criminal charges against five students.
The school resource officer, deputy sheriff John Fain, had no comment.
The principal, Thomas Higgins, said it wasn’t his decision to file charges.
The prosecutor, Rachel Hutzel, said she stands by her decision.
Two students were suspended from school.
Other parents have hired lawyers, so the food fight may end up as a court fight, Fuller reported.
Fain described the hot dog, ice cream and french fry toss as a “riot”.
(Tip credit to Opinion Journal)
Indian River school board won’t suspend teacher for slapping student
Katherine Cairns, an art teacher at Vero Beach High School in the School District of Indian River County, had an encounter with a willful student. The girl screamed at her when Cairns was trying to restore order in the bathroom and Cairns slapped the girl in the face. Schools Superintendent Tom Maher recommended a ten day unpaid suspension for striking a student. The School Board voted 3-2 to ignore the recommendation. Why?
Board member Kathryn Wilson said she was concerned about the students in Cairns’ class not being able to get work done because of the suspension. She said she wanted to see Cairns back in the classroom.
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Home School Group Says Police Used Excessive Force
Updated 25 February, 2005: Charges dropped, police officer fired (details at bottom of post)
Simpsonville Park has been a regular meeting place for a group of home-schoolers. For the past five years they’ve met there every Wednesday to let the kids play. Lately the park was also being used by a nearby public school. Their playground was blocked by portable temporary classrooms so teachers would walk the students across the street to Simpsonville Park for recess.
This situation led to disaster for the home-schoolers last Friday when a teacher noticed one of the boys was wearing a pocketknife in a belt holster. Instead of talking with the boy or a parent she did what she’d been trained to do - she called the cops.
“I heard a man yelling take your hands out of your pocket and I turned around and he was yelling at one of the boys in the group,� says another mother Priscilla Adams.
Priscilla�s 14-year-old son, Glenn says, “He started yelling and screaming at this boy for having a knife, then pushed him down.”
Priscilla says he then “went for another boy a 16-year-old, yelled at him something about having a knife, he pushed him to the ground.”
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That�s when Priscilla says one of the other mothers tried to stop him, by getting between the officer and the student.
“She was trying to protect a student, we didn’t know what was happening, he could’ve been a murderer, a rapist or anything, we just, he was attacking one of our kids and we were trying to stop him,” says Jan.
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Students’ lawsuit over T-shirt gains ground
A group of eighth-grade students at Beaubien Elementary School maintained that it was their right to wear T-shirts emblazoned with the word “Gifties”, their self determined nickname. Although they are high schoolers now they never gave up the fight and are about to have their day in court.
The issue centers on a 2003 vote for a class shirt at the school, 5025 N. Laramie. Students believed one concept won: The name “Gifties” written on the back and a caricature of a boy walking a dog on the front. But school administrators didn’t like the design and kept the election results secret, telling students to take another vote, according to the federal complaint.
The students, who were in the gifted program, challenged the election and asked the school to disclose the results. Students and parents said they didn’t get anywhere, so students decided to wear the “Gifties” design they believed won.
Though students were asked not to wear the design to school, they wore the shirts anyway in protest.
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Florida boy accused of assault with rubber band
Updated 24 February 2005: School district and school contact information corrected. Thanks to Jim Taranto for catching the error.
Robert Gomez, a 7th grade student at Liberty Middle School in the Orange County School District, found a rubber band and put it on his wrist. When his teacher demanded its surrender he tossed it onto her desk. He was suspended for 10 days and now faces expulsion for threatening the teacher with a weapon.
“They said if he would have aimed it a little more and he would have gotten it closer to her face he would have hit her in the eye,” mother Jenette Rojas said.
Rojas said she was shocked to learn that her son was being punished for a Level 4 offense — the highest Level at the school. Other violations that also receive level 4 punishment include arson, assault and battery, bomb threats and explosives, according to the Code of Student Conduct.
The district said a Level 4 offense includes the use of any object or instrument used to make a threat or inflict harm, including a rubber band.
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Ontario teen receives apology from Governor General
Jeremy Patfield, an 8th-grade student in Ontario, was on a class trip to Rideau Hall. While touring the official residence of the Governor General he caught sight of her and posed an indelicate question to his class. The visit was aborted on the spot by the tour guide and Jeremy was later suspended by his school.
“I said, ‘Is that the woman that spends the money on the Queen when she comes?’” Patfield told CTV News.
While the Governor General was within earshot, she didn’t hear the comment. Nevertheless, the remark was not well-received by Rideau Hall staff and a tour guide took swift action to hustle the class out.
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No sweets in school? Fat chance
Last year, the Texas Department of Agriculture crafted a set of restrictive dietary requirements for school foods (see previous post for details). In support of this initiative Austin High School eliminated all candy from their vending machines. The result was predictable to everybody except the school administration - a burgeoning and very profitable black market in candy.
The candy removal plan, according to students at Austin High, was thwarted by classmates who created an underground candy market, turning the hallways of the high school into Willy-Wonka-meets-Casablanca.
Soon after candy was removed from vending machines, enterprising students armed with gym bags full of M&M’s, Skittles, Snickers and Twix became roving vendors, serving classmates in need of an in-school sugar fix. Regular-size candy bars like the ones sold in vending machines routinely sold in the halls for $1.50.
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Snowball suspensions a hot item for BHS
Snowball shenanigans have led to suspensions for students at Baldwin High School in District 348.
Despite being warned by BHS administrators not to throw snowballs, the students did anyway. Each student was disciplined with a school suspension, up to three days.
“We told the students anyone caught throwing snowballs would be suspended from school,” BHS Principal Allen Poplin said.
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