TRI In The News
Lacrosse Players' Case Reaching Higher-Ups
9/22/2011
TRI IN THE NEWS: LACROSSE PLAYERS' CASE REACHING HIGHER-UPS
From One News Now
Original article available here.
The Rutherford Institute is appealing to the Maryland State Board of Education in its effort to defend two Easton High School lacrosse players who were suspended from school in a zero-tolerance incident.
Because Casey Edsall and Graham Dennis were collectively in possession of a penknife and a lighter, the latter was actually handcuffed, fingerprinted, charged with possession of a deadly weapon, and both were suspended from school -- even though it was understood that the "weapons" were used to maintain sports equipment. Following the discovery, the Talbot County Board of Education elected not to reverse the suspensions or expunge the players' academic records.
"What we find across the country, though, in these zero-tolerance cases -- from kids shooting spit wads to playing practical jokes -- [is that] now they're routinely thrown out of school, and school boards usually uphold what the schools are doing," laments John Whitehead, president of The Rutherford Institute. "It's a very, very stringent bureaucracy."
He suggests that zero tolerance be replaced with better policies.
"I don't think we really need zero-tolerance policies. I tell people in school boards and school officials, what we need are anti-drug policies and anti-weapon policies, where what's a weapon is clearly defined," Whitehead contends.
If the state board does not overturn the charges against the boys, The Rutherford Institute will continue the appeals, citing the fact that the suspensions violated fundamental principles of due process of law because the lighter and penknife were not clearly prohibited under school policies. Further, the items cannot reasonably be considered "dangerous weapons" because the only applicable definitions of such make no mention of lighters, and they specifically exclude small penknives.
