Warren woman challenges city schools’ expulsion policy in court

Well maybe her son shouldn't get into fights at school.

Well, it certainly depends on the circumstances. I had a similar situation where my son was expelled and served the expulsion period. Shortly before the expulsion period was over, we moved to another district. I then attempted to enroll my son (9th grade) and he was denied enrollment for the reason stipulated in the previous expulsion. He was also not permitted to go to schools that had open enrollment. He did not kill anyone, he did not hit or harm anyone. He made the mistake of trying to sell aspirin to another student. As a result, he was denied an education by public and private schools. Had I been able to afford it, I would have sued as well!

Good for the Warren City Schools ! Schools are for learning. They gave him plenty of time to fight on the streets.

What part of "zero tolerance" is so hard to understand??? Kudos to the school district and shame on that mother for reinforcing unacceptable behavior. Fighting is fighting, and it's about time our schools get back to the business of educating and not refereeing.

I agree teachers have enough to deal with in class, as someone else stated the majority of these kids could care less about education, school is for those who want to learn, those who want to disrupt or fight don't belong.

What happened to accountability? As a parent of children in the Warren City Schools, I have reminded them many times about the school policies, especially the zero tolerance ones. Instead of filing a suit, this women should be teaching her son about accountability and unacceptable behavior. I can't wait until the jugde tosses her case.

See the funny thing is -- parents like these obviously don't care enough to teach their children values and responsibility. So, instead, they figure "the schools will take care of my kid(s) so I don't have to." So they let the schools take care of it, and then they start whining and crying that their kid's in trouble.

I guarantee this broad's only causing all of these problems because if her kid's expelled for six months, it means the kid's stuck with her for six months. God forbid if a parent has to take care of the child they gave birth to!

There are some pretty high and mighty people on this board who must have lived their lives as saints. Since when is one (or even two) school fight the sign of a lost cause in a teen-ager? If every person who's ever gotten into a fight in school had been expelled, the United States' graduation rate would hover somewhere around 25 percent. That's why 1-, 3-, and 10-day suspensions have typically been employed before expulsion.

Yes the city schools especially, need tough guidelines to curtail the rampant discipline problems, but an unequivocal, across the board policy that leaves no room for variables (including self-defense) doesn't serve anyone's interest. People do teach their kids values, and sometimes those kids still make poor decisions -- that's why they are called kids. While that doesn't mean they shouldn't be punished, disciplinary actions that have long-lasting consequences on their education can be counter-productive. All the school board has done is give this kid one more reason not to trust authority figures who are supposedly there to help him. They've hung him out to dry before he's even old enough to vote.

If in 2009, there's no second chance for a kid who 1999 would have gotten a 3-day suspension, what will 2019 bring? Perhaps a five-year jail sentence? Death penalty? Because we all know that every teen whose even been in a fight has turned out to be a worthless criminal, right.

The only way she may have a case is if he did not fight by his own will. If someone beats the crap out of you and you can't do a thing is that right? You should be able to defend yourself. don't know if thats' the case ehre though.

Instead of this lady wasting the taxpayers money in court maybe she should be teaching her son not to fight. The next time it happens it might be her son on the ground or worse laying on a slab in a morgue.

well ot might be too late for that. Byt the time you are that age you don't give a care what your parents tell you.

city_dweller this is not the NFL where "lifetime ban" means about a year or so. This is and means ZERO TOLLERANCE get it ZERO like in NO MORE CHANCES.
The disctrict obviously put the rule in place to keep even the most minor offenses from happening on school grounds. Warren has a broad racial mix as well as the age old tension between east and west side students. The best way to keep tensions in check is to have a very strict policy. Once you bend on that policy you're opening the floodgates.
I suppose you're also against the zero tollerance gun policy? "Oh, Mr Superintendant it wasn't like my son brought a fully automatic weapon to school, this only has a 9 shot clip"
Give me a break! The kid was, and should be gone. He wasn't denied education, only the ability to continue to attend Warren schools. Ever heard of home schooling? Her suit is baseless.

Home schooling,might as well be no schooling in some cases and if he was defended himsef then why is it all his fault? If thats' the case she has every right to go after thier butts.

Scrooge, I'm not suggesting the rule be overlooked in this case; I'm saying the rule is ineffective and needs to be revoked, and if this case achieves that end, then great. Warren is wrong to expel kids for a year for one fight, especially because expulsion often does lead to complete denial of an education. Teenagers do not need to be subjected to a rule that tells them one mistake, one misjudgement, one bad choice makes them lost causes that the school can't be bothered with. What about community service, cleaning the school after hours, tutoring elementary kids, or something, anything that doesn't result in another teenager being thrown out of school and wondering what's the point of trying if you're pegged for a loser at 16.

And let's not compare a fight to bringing a gun to school -- they are not the same. But for the record, no, I am generally not for any rule that leaves no room for variables and individual considerations. But I also don't think zero tolerance is the only method educators can come up with to deal with discipline. It treats every student the same, which is unfair ad reasonable. The bottom line is every situation is not the same and should not be treated as such.

They might not be the same, but one thing leads to another. A kid isn't just going to wake up one day and say, "hey, I'm gonna bring a gun to school." Fights are just the beginning.

So evey kid who fights wil lbring a gu nto school? Come on now that is jsut coonecting tow tihngs together that do not go together or tw lne o na piece of paprer .Actually kids will have revene o ntheir mind after they do get back in school.

I never said that every kid who fights will bring a gun to school. I'm just saying that fights are the beginning and one thing leads to another. Fights are the gateway into bigger and worse things. Unless of course something is done about it, in which this case, the school expelled the kid.

Wel lthe key is the ycan be or they can mean nothng. don't you have the right t odefend yourslef if someone ebats the crap out of you when you try to walk away?

Let's put things into context here. Yes, kids should not be fighting at school. But the point here is that they are CHILDREN. Kids don't have the rational thinking, maturity level of adults (and I know some adults who don't even have that). When I was in highschool 15+ years ago, a fight was typically 3 days suspension. Ms. West's son didn't bring a gun to school. Those two things aren't even comparable. Most likely, he let his emotions get in the way of clear thinking. As a society, must we be so harsh as to have no mercy on a kid who messes up? I know when I was in high school I did plenty of stupid things, and I would be surprised if all of the posters on this board never did stupid things, either. Suspend the kid for 3 days and move on. Just because there is a zero tolerance policy doesn't mean it is a good policy.

Exactly Eric! As I said in my first post, if every school had had a "zero tolerance policy" for the past 25 years, I'd venture to say half the people in the U.S. that graduated in that time would have an expulsion on their records. It's crazy! Kids make stupid, unreasonable, emotional, illogical, and childish decisions. Punishing them for a year for a fight that lasted 10 minutes is equally as stupid as the fight itself.

If the Warren City Schools didn't suspend the trouble makers the disruptions would not allow those who desire an education to get one.

Today schools are allowed to 'strip search' our kids on the 'rumor' of OTC drugs like Tylenol. Does everyone in the school system have such high integrity that this policy cannot be abused?

Kids have soooooooooo many rules and regulations and loss of rights, even freedom of speach, and the right to say 'no' to strip searches by some pervert they KNOW their word as a kid means nothing.

To expell a kid for fighting is ridiculous. In school suspensions protects every child's right to an education. Like parents who handle their kids' sibling fights........we don't expell them from their family.

In Florida a kid was expelled for FARTING.......OMG. How pathetic. In CT a kid was expelled for turning his camera into a fake taser........OMG How pathetic.

Sneak into your school system during class changes and lunch breaks and LISTEN to how authority figures are talking (excuse me......ordering) kids around like they were inmates in a correctional institution. OMG. Pathetic.

Kids today are being emotionally and verbally abused by school officials and police officers.
NOT like the days we grew up. We respected authority figures because they respected us. Mutual respect and communication. We as a society need to get back to OLD values.

Kids today don't trust authority figures because there is so much corruption in Government, schools, police departments.........all citizens have lost civil rights over the last 15 years especially our kids.

KUDOS to this woman who had the BRAVERY to stand up because she will undoubtedly suffer egregrious retaliations so common today in our corrupt Leadership over its citizens

Deb, while you make a few valid points, you gotta think -- a lot of these kids aren't the best behaved children. Not to say that this one in the story was or was not a bad kid, but it's because of the bad kids that schools have to initiate these types of policies for everyone. A lot of these children are misguided and are not disciplined, thus leading them to think it’s okay to start and/or participate in fights at school.

Although six months may be a little excessive, it is their policy, and I’m sure that both the student and his parent(s) were aware of that.

6 Months is too long. These are kids- not adults. If kids had the maturity and ability to think like adults we wouldnt need a juvenile court system. Heck, when do you see an adult sentenced to 6 months in jail for domestic violence?

How may prople would they be expleed for fighting if they did it for everyone? There would not eb enough kids to teach,add in drugs and being loud in class and yu would have a mess and no kids in school.

Metz. No offense, buddy, but were you by any chance kicked out of your spelling class for six months back in the day?

Every kid knows what the rules are in school. I admit to getting into a few fights in school, but I also knew what the punishment was. 3 days in suspension was not enough to deter me from fighting. However, a 6 month suspension would have deterred me. The teachers are not there to run a prison, they are there to educate. The problem of fighting was so bad at Harding that this policy had to be enacted. This battle by the students mother is a no-win situation. Perhaps other kids will learn by this example to follow the rules. The statistics on fighting at Harding show that this policy is effective.

Interesting - everyone here seems to have brought up the fact that the mother should have taught him about accountibility for his actions and how the schools have taken this Zero tollerance Bulls%##@t too far and self defence and so forth. . .

What I'm wondering is what happened to the other kid that was in the fight? Unless this kid was beaing up himself, there was someone else involved. Why isnt his mother suing? What punishment did he get?

Just wondering - does anyone know?