The parents of an Eagle Scout who was suspended from his upstate New York high school for a month over a 2-inch pocketknife he kept locked in his car have retained a lawyer to appeal their school district's zero-tolerance policies and demand that their son's record be cleared.This is a classic case of overreaction on the part of the school superintendent. Zero tolerance policies are always going to end up like this because they ignore mitigating factors and rely on knee-jerk justice instead. That's not a smart way to operate.
Education lawyer Victor DeBonis is working pro bono for the family of 17-year-old Matthew Whalen, who has been banned from Lansingburgh High School for 20 school days.
Whalen's father said he hopes the school board will reverse the decision of Lansingburgh Central School District Superintendent George Goodwin, who extended Matthew's initial five-day suspension into a monthlong sentence — and he is threatening a lawsuit if all other options are exhausted.
"If they overturn the superintendent's actions and expunge my son's record, I guess we're done," said Bryan Whalen, who said DeBonis filed the appeal Monday morning. "If they don't, then there will be further steps."...
In suspending Matthew, Goodwin cited a zero-tolerance policy that bans all weapons from school grounds. The small utility knife — a gift from Matthew's grandfather, a police chief in a nearby town was part of a survival kit he kept in his car that included a sleeping bag, water and a ready-to-eat meal. The knife was discovered when school officials searched the teen's car.
Whalen, who completed a 10-week Army basic training session over the summer, was taught as an Eagle Scout how to handle tools including the pocketknife, and he instructs Boy Scouts how to safely handle knives.
But the school's rule book brands possession of a knife to be "violent" conduct, and leaves it to the discretion of the superintendent to determine the proper punishment. Goodwin has refused to budge on his decision, and has yet to speak to Whalen's family.
Nowhere in the school district's rule book, which is published online, is there any mention of a zero-tolerance policy, leading some to question whether Goodwin, in fact, was compelled to suspend Matthew.
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Zero Tolerance or Zero Common Sense?
An Eagle Scout has obtained legal counsel to fight what appears to be a really stupid suspension:
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3 comments:
Time to get Matthew out of government school! Forget the suing and such in court. . . just get him homeschooled or in a privately run school.
Stuff like this helps explain why there is no art education (for example) in government schools anymore. . . can't have scissors to cut paper anymore, in this line of thinking.
Next thing you know, baseball will be outlawed because the bat will be judged to be solely a weapon, not piece of game equipment.
Groan. . .
Just another prime example of a school district and its administrators who have lost their senses and common reasoning. These educators apparantly have obtained so much education that they have gone mad. They should be replaced with people who at least have some common sense. The district should be sued and I would hope the court finds them to be in the wrong. I wonder if they even had a search warrant to search the students car.
The school doesn't need a warrant to search anything on school property. However, if the school is basing its defense on a zero tolerance policy that has not been provided to the students, then there is an issue.
I had heard that this kid is trying to get into one of the military academies, and this event on his school record may possibly effect the decision of the academy. I would be upset too.
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