A personal story submitted November 2011

My daughter is 12 years old and used to attend a middle school in XXXX ISD in Texas. In early October a boy that she goes to school with came to our house and told my child that he’d heard a rumor that she was going to get “jumped” (beat up) after school. He handed her a pocket knife and told her to keep it on her at all times. The knife had been purchased by the boy at a local flea market and was an EMT rescue type knife.

My daughter did take the knife to school the next day where she was approached by another boy who asked her why she was acting so sad. She explained what had happened the day before and told him that she was scared that she was going to get beat up but she did not feel comfortable carrying a knife. The boy took the knife from her and told her that she could get into trouble for having it at school anyway and he took it home with him.

A couple of weeks later my daughter told him that she needed it back so that she could return it to the original owner as it was not hers to let him keep. The boy returned the knife within a few days at school and she put it in her pocket because she didn’t want
to be late for class and didn’t have time to go to her locker. Her intention was only to bring the knife home and call the first boy to come and take it back.

Another child in class saw it because when she sat down the top of it came out of her pocket and told the principal. My daughter was then removed from class, questioned and then arrested. I was not called until she was in custody and on her way to jail. The police officer classified the knife as a switch blade (which it is clearly NOT ) causing the issue to require the strictest state required penalty  – arrest, expulsion, assignment to the counties JJAEP school (the school that they put the children who are too bad for normal alternative school) and criminal charges for bringing a deadly weapon to school.  According to the arresting officer it is a state jail felony to bring a knife to school and my daughter could face jail time for this.

She has never in her life been in any sort of trouble at school much less with the police, the most she ever gets in trouble for at home is not cleaning her room every week! She was in Advanced placement classes at her school and liked by all of her teachers. My daughter was also very involved in the theater
program at the school and is currently teaching herself French, Japanese, Chinese and Spanish because she wants to be an international translator when she grows up.  This is a kid who still climbs trees and builds club houses outside – my point is that my daughter could by no stretch of the imagination be a danger to anyone!

Aside from the legal ramifications she has been sent to the JJAEP school as I mentioned above, the school is reserved for unmanageable children generally. She is the youngest student in school and is lumped into the “girls” class of 25 high school students. Calling this place a school is a stretch, the teachers do not actually teach anything but instead give the students assignments per their grade level and then they are turned in at the end of class. My daughter is having trouble because with no instruction it can be difficult to complete assignments and also because of the constant noise from the other students.

The kids at the school can not be controlled by the teachers. The students are allowed to cuss at the teachers and the teachers apparently cuss right back. For several days this week they have watched movies in Math class and for the most part just sit around and chat in all of the classes. The girls are searched every morning, they must lift up their bras to show security that they haven’t tried to smuggle anything in.

A couple of days ago one of the teachers (not in a lesson but in general conversation with some of the kids) tried to explain how human life was created and told them that god creates it
because man doesn’t have the power to. SERIOUSLY?? I am agnostic and I really don’t care if kids pray in school or bring a bible to read but teachers should NEVER tell kids that god created us in a public school.

I could go on and on with stories – including all the neat gang signs that daughter is coming home showing me from exposure to the older and many times “bad” children. There is no way on earth that my once AP daughter will be able to integrate academically back into regular school in late January when she is supposed to. I don’t know what to do here but I feel that it is pretty plain that my child was no threat and is not a Columbine killer child.

PS – They also expelled the boy who took the knife from my daughter and placed him in the JJAEP school and he never even got caught with it physically on him. Now we are receiving threats from students toward my daughter saying that she will get it when she gets back to school for getting this boy in trouble!!

An Update on this story:
Yesterday we attended the appeal hearing for the expulsion. We argued that the officer and Assistant Principal mis-classified the knife in question and that had it been classified as a pocket knife rather than a switchblade my daughter would never have been expelled or arrested but instead most likely suspended for a few days. We asked that they reclassify the infraction as a level III (rather than 5) as it should have been in the first place and allow her back into school with “time served” as she has attended the JJAEP alternative school for 18 days already.

The board decided that we were right and they are allowing her back to school on Monday rather than making her complete her 45 expulsion as originally issued by the school. We still face criminal charges but our attorney feels that since the board has rescinded the schools original judgment that the DA might be willing to drop the charges as they never should have been filed in the first place.

While we feel that the school officials and officer originally handled the situation very poorly we were impressed with the board that was present at the appeal hearing. The board was made up of school officials from the district (mostly AP’s from other schools) they were objective and asked a lot of tough questions to both sides. They heavily questioned the school officials involved about their decision to take this matter as far as they did and in the end held the school accountable for making this mistake. We have mixed feelings but in this case the appeal system DID do it’s job.

I will add though that I am not sure that things would have gone this way had we not hired an attorney to accompany us to the hearing, some of the outcome might have been due to the school
districts attorney advising them that if we challenged their verdict in court and won the school would be liable for a lot of overkill in this situation (of course this is just my guess). I would advise any parents in a situation like this to hire an attorney if any way
possible to fight for their child.