AG parent upset over daughter’s suspension
My daughter is a senior in the Albert Gallatin School District. She participates in many school activities, clubs and organizations, and is, in general, a well-rounded student. She takes AP and honors courses and last spring, she was a dual enrollment student at Penn State. She has been a model student, never broken any rules, never gotten in any sort of trouble or served any kind of detention, misses very few days of school (mostly asthma related) but she was suspended for three days the last week of October.
The reason she was suspended – is my fault. I am a hunter, and I used the car over the weekend, and didn’t get all of my stuff out of the car before she took it to school on Monday. I left my practice arrows in the car along with my hunting suit and belt. Apparently the arrows were seen through the window and she was called out and forced to unlock the car.
My hunting belt was searched and it held my pocket knife. The hunting suit was a size 2X, yet my daughter wears “extra small junior miss” clothing. Clearly this suit and these items were not hers. There was no bow, just the practice arrows, so there was no way to “shoot them.” The school admits that they knew the items weren’t hers, but because she brought them in the car she was guilty of having a weapon on school grounds. They weren’t in the school, in her possession or even in her locker. She had no knowledge of these items being in the car.
How many of you have a seatbelt cutter or utility knife in your car’s console for an emergency as is recommended by emergency personnel? Is there a piece of wire, box cutter or a hammer to make a quick repair if needed or a flare for emergencies in the vehicle your child takes to school? These are all considered weapons.
Your child can be suspended or expelled if they are in the car on school grounds. Heaven forbid if you have a baseball bat in your car or camping equipment (saw, ax, or rake) for the weekend camping trip. You could be accused of plotting to do some damage to someone.
Do you know that in the Albert Gallatin School District you are guilty and can be suspended before your parents are notified? You then must have a hearing to be readmitted into school, because you are guilty. Their words are the only ones that count. The students don’t get a chance to explain their position, nor do the parents.
OK, correct me if you will, but aren’t criminals accused of murder and robbery, alleged until they are proven guilty in a court of law? Our students are guilty without a question, there is no discussion, there is no “we know this wasn’t intentional on your part” – it is “you’re suspended.”
Do you see something wrong with this picture? Whatever happened to common sense? School officials said they knew these items didn’t belong to her, besides, she would have never had the strength to take a practice arrow (designed to be shot with a crossbow into a Styrofoam block) and stab someone with it. She would have much more luck with a wood lead pencil – think about that – she was suspended for an item she didn’t know existed that was less dangerous than a pencil. She didn’t realize these items were in the car. It wasn’t something you would normally think about when you leave for school in the dark.
How many times have you forgotten about items in your car? When our good kids are treated like the students who fight and are troublemakers, it is no wonder so many get angry and then become distrustful of those same officials they have been taught for years to respect.
Our daughter was suspended for three days, missed her classes and several functions, caused unnecessary stress on her system, and tainted her senior year, because of my mistake. Then to top it all off – the school administrators says the district sets the rules, but the district says the schools set them. They sure do like to pass the buck – while we pay them.
If your child gets hurt in school, they aren’t responsible. If items are stolen from your child from a secure locked instrument closet – they aren’t responsible for that either, but they won’t give the video tapes so you can seek the person who did the stealing. Sounds like special treatment to me, as you can bet if it was their family member, they wouldn’t have been suspended.
Is it because as parents we aren’t involved in the school functions, that we weren’t around to volunteer? Wait – we are – we have been involved in everything she has participated in, all booster activities for every organization over the years. We have supported the school through too many fundraisers to count, chaperoned so many events and trips, provided students without transportation a way home from functions (with parental consent of course). We, too, have followed all the rules of the school district for the last 24 years.
The Albert Gallatin School District believes that suspending good students teaches them a lesson. You have just thrown them out of class, taking away their education, and they are supposed to learn from this? How can she learn anything from this, but to be bitter? She knows she didn’t do anything wrong. She’s the student who disliked “fun day” in elementary school because she wasn’t learning anything.
Most students given this suspension would sleep all day and not worry about their class work. Not her, she has asked for all her work, sent an e-mail to every teacher requesting extra, and spent her days volunteering for the food bank, Salvation Army and the church.
This policy of the school code needs to be rewritten. School officials need to take the situation and all conditions into consideration. If the student has been in trouble in the past that is one thing, but not a student who clearly only made the mistake of driving the wrong car that day.
What do I want out of this? The only thing that could be given back to her would be the days on paper she was forced to be out of school, and a written heartfelt apology from the district and those involved for over reacting.
Adolph Cook is a resident of Lake Lynn.