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Teen expelled for butter knife in pickup
Josey1
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Teen expelled for butter knife in pickupMonica MendozaFort Worth Star-TelegramMarch 18, 2002 15:20:00HURST, Texas - A good deed, a bread knife and a zero-tolerance policy has a high school honor student fighting a one-year expulsion.Taylor Hess, 16, was expelled from L.D. Bell High School in this Fort Worth suburb by Principal Jim Short on March 4, after school officials found a bread knife in the back of Hess' pickup, which was parked at the school. Hess is appealing the expulsion. A hearing is scheduled for Thursday."At no point did I have any idea that knife was in my truck," said Hess, a junior and an award-winning swimmer at L.D. Bell.The teen, who has never been in detention, will be placed in the Tarrant County Juvenile Justice Alternative Education Program, under the expulsion order."It's crushing," said Robert Hess, Taylor's father. "That is for hard-core, violent youth."Hurst-Euless-Bedford school district Superintendent Gene Buinger declined to comment about the case.Taylor Hess, who said the incident has shaken his trust in school leaders, wants to be reinstated to L.D. Bell and to see a change in the zero-tolerance policies in Texas schools."It just seems really embarrassing," Hess said, looking downward. "I feel really let down by the school system."The teen's story began on a Sunday afternoon with him and his father packing linens, books and kitchenware that had belonged to his ailing grandmother. At sunset, Hess and his father delivered a truckload of boxes to the Goodwill Super Store in Hurst.The next morning at school, Hess was removed from class. A school security guard had seen a nonserrated bread knife with a 10-inch blade in the bed of the teen's pickup. It must have fallen out of one of the Goodwill boxes, Hess said.But the H-E-B district's Student Code of Conduct - which Hess and his mother, Gay Hess, both signed - prohibits students from bringing weapons onto school grounds. "This is a serious offense," Taylor Hess was told by school officials.A hearing was set. Hess and his parents, along with three school administrators and a Hurst police officer, were sworn in. It was then that it hit Hess like a brick: "My future is at stake," he thought.Hess, who worked a summer job as a lifeguard, wants to take flying lessons. He said he wants to go to college, possibly on a swimming scholarship, and major in aeronautical engineering.At the end of the three-hour meeting, school officials told Hess that his action posed a threat to his fellow students. Four days after the hearing, he was expelled.The Texas Education Code calls for expulsion when a student is in possession of a weapon on school grounds.But Arlington, Texas, attorney Don W. King, who represents Hess, said the student was not in possession of the knife. Possession requires that a person "intentionally, knowingly, or recklessly possesses or goes with a firearm, illegal knife, club, or prohibited weapon," according to the penal code."He is clearly not guilty of possession under the penal code," King said. "He was not legally in possession of that bread knife."Hurst police appear to agree. No charges will be pursued against the teen, Hurst police Lt. Steve Moore said. The matter is in the school district's hands, he said.In an audiotape recording of the hearing obtained by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, school officials agreed they had no reason to believe that Hess was lying.During the hearing, Short, the L.D. Bell principal, described Hess as "an exemplary student" and said the expulsion was a difficult decision."Zero tolerance makes you feel you lose your judgment you might otherwise be able to afford," Short said on the tape.But Short maintained during the hearing that the process is fair. He could not be reached to comment. The H-E-B district was on spring break.Hess' brother Jordan Hess, 17, questions how the policy or the process can be fair when it works against good students."He is a victim of zero tolerance," said Jordan Hess, who is worried that the expulsion will keep his brother from seeing him graduate in May. Taylor Hess cannot set foot on H-E-B school grounds or attend school events for one calendar year.King said he will argue during the appeal that due process is not carried out when automatic expulsion is the only result. In October 2000, the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found in favor of a student in a similar situation on the basis that under the school district's zero-tolerance policy, due process was not carried out."It's time for something to change," Gay Hess said.She said she is sick about her youngest son's expulsion. She was the one who packed up the boxes. The bread knife had been "rattling around in a drawer for maybe 20, 30 years," she said. Her son never even touched the knife, she said."I want a change in policy to where a principal can make a good sound judgment on a case-by-case basis rather than a blanket one," she said.For zero-tolerance school polices to change, the law would have to be modified. School districts are bound by the Texas Education Code, Chapter 37, which outlines a series of actions for which a student "shall be expelled." Bringing a weapon on campus is one of them.In the wake of shootings at schools across the country, lawmakers have written zero-tolerance laws that in many cases have been championed by parents calling for the need to make schools safer."Zero tolerance does not mean zero rights for the students," said Robert Hess, who said he will be forced to consider sending his son to private school.Taylor Hess' family is not alone. Nationwide, students have been expelled under zero-tolerance policies for myriad reasons, including having a toy gun, a cake knife and aspirin on school grounds. Students and their parents have sued, posted their stories on the Internet and been the subject of discussion among civil rights scholars.Last year, the American Bar Association passed a resolution opposing zero-tolerance policies in schools. The resolution proposes that school responses to allegations of student misbehavior be fair and individualized. But in January, the U.S. Supreme Court in Ratner v. Loudoun County (Virginia) Public Schools declined to review whether the policies violated the constitutional rights of students.H-E-B district officials maintained throughout the Hess hearing that students' safety must be the overriding factor in any situation where a weapon is found on campus."I do feel he put students at risk, whether he knowingly did that or not," Dianne Byrnes, H-E-B director of alternative education programs, said at the hearing.Hess said he believes that line of logic is flawed."If a kid picks up the knife, he's the one putting kids at risk," the teen said.That is what he will argue this week in his appeal to Steve Chapman, H-E-B assistant superintendent for secondary instruction. Hess will have 15 minutes to present his case and five minutes for rebuttal after school officials present their case.If the expulsion is upheld, Hess can make a second appeal to the school board. And if need be, he said, he will take his case to court. If this could happen to him, it could happen to any student, Hess' family said."We want the child back in school and getting on with his life," Gay Hess said. "We know we are doing the right thing." ONLINE: Hurst-Euless-Bedford school district Student Code of Conduct: www.hebisd.edu/ Read the Texas Education Code: www.capitol.state.tx.us/statutes/ed/ed003700toc.html (Visit the Star-Telegram's online services on the World Wide Web: www.star-telegram.com) nn http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0318butterknife18-ON.html
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