TRI In The News
VA Court Hears 'Spit Wad' Case
10/20/2011
TRI IN THE NEWS: VA COURT HEARS 'SPIT WAD' CASE
From One News Now
Original article available here.
The Virginia Supreme Court heard oral arguments Tuesday in the ongoing case involving a 14-year-old student expelled last year for shooting spit wads.
Andrew Mikel was expelled for the remaining six months of school last year for shooting plastic spit wads. He was charged with "violent criminal conduct" in the December 2010 incident in which no one was injured. The Rutherford Institute president John Whitehead, who is representing Mikel, says officials with Spotsylvania High School overreacted excessively.
"This is capricious; it was an abuse of discretion to throw this young man out [of school] for half a year ... for taking a plastic pen casing and shooting small, hollow 'BBs' ... that he bought at a toy store," states the attorney.
Whitehead says it is important that Mikel's record be cleared or his dreams of going to a military academy or a good university will be ruined.
"So what we want here is for the court to clean up his record," Whitehead explains. "He's a very good student -- he wanted to go to either Annapolis or West Point -- and now he will not be able to do that because of this particular suspension from school."
As part of his punishment, young Mikel was also required to undergo substance abuse and anger management counseling for the "spit wad" incident.
