Another "innocent" knife-in-school case

I was looking for follow-up on a really bizarre stabbing case, and I found this instead, where a court sent a "zero tolerance" case back to the drawing boards on procedural issues. http://www.phillynews.com/inquirer/2000/Mar/02/pa_west/NHOLLOW02.htm

Judges overturn expulsion of Spring-Ford 7th grader

By Robert Sanchez

INQUIRER SUBURBAN STAFF
A three-judge panel of the Montgomery County Court yesterday overturned the expulsion of a 12-year-old who took a utility knife to Spring-Ford Middle School. The judges ordered the school board to reconsider the matter.

Montgomery County Court Judges Calvin S. Drayer, William T. Nicholas and Thomas M. DelRicci made the order two days after hearing attorneys for Anthony Holloway and the Spring-Ford Area School District argue the case.

The seventh grader's attorney said the family was happy with the decision and wanted the school board to drop the issue. The board has not indicated it will do so.

If the board goes ahead with a new expulsion hearing, the boy could be expelled again and another appeal could follow.

"This district has stood firm on its policies and won't be bullied into backing down from enforcement of safety policies," said Spring-Ford attorney Mark Cappuccio. "I fully expect that the board will conduct another hearing."

The family was not available for comment, though their attorney, John Gallagher, said he thought the judges' order was sufficient - for now.

"I would hope they'd see that it's in Anthony's best interest to forget the whole thing," Gallagher said.

Spring-Ford officials first doled out a seven-day suspension Dec. 15 after a teacher confiscated the "Helping Hand" utility knife when Anthony showed it to a friend in art class. Five days later, the family received a letter saying that an expulsion hearing would be held the next day, Dec. 21. On that day, the school board voted, 8-0, to expel Anthony for a year.

A teacher testified at the expulsion hearing that he did not think Anthony intended to hurt anyone with the knife. The school's assistant principal agreed.

In yesterday's seven-page order, the judges said Anthony's parents, Christopher and Rolonda Chung, should have been given the opportunity for an informal hearing on their son's initial suspension. The parents also were not given enough time to "meaningfully prepare" for the expulsion hearing, the order said.

The family did not have a lawyer present at that hearing.

Cappuccio said the district had learned that it must pay more attention to procedure in these matters.

"If proper procedure would have been followed at that time, I think there would have been a different decision handed out" by the judges, he said.

A school board must expel any student in possession of a weapon, including cutting instruments, on school grounds for a minimum of a year, state law says. Superintendents are allowed to recommend a modified punishment case by case.

On Jan. 11, Drayer ordered that Holloway return to school while his appeal was being heard because he did not pose a threat to other students.

In court documents filed last month, Anthony's family raised claims of racial discrimination in the expulsion because Anthony is African American. The judges on Monday did not hear that claim.
Click to expand...

So it goes . . .



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- JKM
www.chaicutlery.com
AKTI Member # SA00001
 
Now I really think that they are taking this zero tolerance a bit too far,
Thanx for sharing.......
 
S

Stryver

Joined
Jun 5, 1999
Messages
566
Zero Tolerance may be too far, but this is not a case of taking zero tolerance too far. If you say 'zero tolerance', then you must tolerate nothing. Zero. By definition.

However, I disagree with the punishment behind this example of zero tolerance. For the posession of a cutting instrument (As the law is described) one gets a one year expulsion automatically. Does this mean exacto knives are no longer allowed in art class? Saws no longer authorized in Wood Shop? Scissors and paper cutters no longer permissible in the library?

Zero tolerance _may_ have it's place. But punishments must match offenses. Finding out that your parent accidentally packed a knife in your lunch, and giving that knife to your teacher is not something warranting expulsion, and if someone has written the rules in a way that they feel they must do so in that situation, then they wrote the rules wrong. Bringing a utility knife to school and showing it off to your friends may very well be a wrong and punishable thing. Is expulsion the punishment you want to use? This is a question for people in charge of that school and their parents.

Zero tolerance is an acceptable way of dealing with things, and it makes boundaries very easy. It does not necessarily mean that the only punishment allowed is the most strict punishment, and the people creating the rules need to think about the consequences of the rules they make.


And just so you know I'm not crazy, the knife packed in the lunch was a real story that happened, and the kid was initially expelled.


Stryver
 
Naturally what applies to the students doesn't apply to the non-students. At my school, you can be expelled for a physical attack on another student. The punishment isn't as severe for an attack on another student.
rolleyes.gif


The rule against weapons states that expulsion is automatic for bringing in a knife, gun, or anything else "that can be used in a deadly manner."

As one of my friends then said after our assistant principal gave us a short speech to remind us not to do something stupid that would get us expelled, "You're not allowed to be here Simon."

Zero tolerance and vague restrictions . . . there's a match made in the bowels of hell . . .
rolleyes.gif


[This message has been edited by Simon Yu (edited 03-05-2000).]
 
This is a microcosm of our society at large.

The seduction of trying to legislate possession because it seems easier. Once people are educated they will work around it and only the honest or incompetent will be unarmed or punished.

The naivety of these kids that keep getting expelled...they were just not the problem.

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CJ Buck
Buck Knives, Inc.
AKTI Member #PR00003


 
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