TRI In The News
Overstatement
From World Virginia
Original article available here
The Supreme Court of Virginia has refused to rehear the case of a Virginia student who was suspended for pelting fellow students with plastic pellets blown out of a pen casing.
On January 20 the court refused to rehear the case of 14-year-old Andrew Mikel, according to the Rutherford Institute, which is representing the student.
Spotsylvania High School officials said Mikel shot small, hollow plastic pellets at other students during lunch, which constituted "violent criminal conduct" and possession of a weapon. He hit three, according to court documents, and Mikel reportedly said that they "flinched" and "looked annoyed."
School officials initially suspended him for 10 days and charged him with criminal assault and possession of a weapon under the student code of conduct, then extended the suspension through the school year.
A Spotsylvania County Circuit Court judge upheld the action in May. The circuit court, though recognizing that the school acted beyond the necessary discipline, refused to overturn the disciplinary measures. The Supreme Court of Virginia released a two sentence statement that upheld the county circuit court ruling.
Spotsylvania County School Division spokeswoman Rene Daniels noted last year that presented evidence showed the projectiles were hard plastic air gun pellets. "Spotsylvania County School Board strives to keep its hallways and students safe from conduct of other students that may be harmful," she said in a statement, according to the Washington Post.
The Rutherford Institute's president, John W. Whitehead, contends school administrators overreacted, even going so far as reporting the incident to the local sheriff's office. He said the school's punishment lacked common sense. "The schools don't distinguish between punishment and discipline," he told World Virginia.
Whitehead described Mikel as a good kid: an honor roll student, member of the junior ROTC program, and a Christian. Even though Mikel wrote letters of apology to all the kids involved in the incident, "the school didn't care," Whitehead said.
Mikel's case is one of many that have resulted from the zero tolerance policies adopted by public schools partly in response to horrendous events like the Columbine shootings. "Since the 1990s, we've had hundreds of these cases," Whitehead said.
"What we are witnessing, thanks in large part to zero tolerance policies that were intended to make schools safer by discouraging the use of actual drugs and weapons by students, is the inhumane treatment of young people and the criminalization of childish behavior."
This well-intentioned policy impacts the lives of the students involved. Nakisha Lewis, a project manager for the Schott Foundation for Public Education, told the Massachusetts based New England Center for Investigative Reporting that zero tolerance policies create a "cradle-to-prison pipeline." Removing children from school for petty offenses has the potential to lead to juvenile delinquency, according to Lewis.
Mikel's dream of attending the Naval Academy and eventually becoming a Navy Seal like his father has been destroyed by the criminal record he now carries as a result of the high school's disciplinary action.
The Rutherford Institute now hopes that the U.S. Supreme Court will hear the case. Whitehead said, "We're only asking that his criminal record be cleaned up."
