Posted on 12/14/2006 9:23:06 AM PST by Extremely Extreme Extremist
Plainfield Student's Parents Say The Punishment Doesn't Make Sense
(CBS) PLAINFIELD, Ill. -- A 13-year-old Plainfield boy and his parents are stunned and outraged after the teen found a gun in school and turned it in to authorities, who then expelled him.
CBS 2's Dana Kozlov reports Ryan Morgan's parents and supporters attended the school board meeting Wednesday evening to try to fight the expulsion. They believe the punishment, and the subsequent alternative school option, are not the proper responses to a mistake made by a teenage boy.
Ryan Morgan, 13, says he pocketed a pellet gun he and a friend found in their school's bathroom to keep people safe. Morgan's mother says a short time later Morgan gave the gun to the Troy Middle School assistant principal.
"I told him maybe that wasn't the best decision, to remove that gun, but it did lead to you finding the culprit, he was arrested and to put my son in alternative school -- he has no behavior problems," Audrey Morgan, Ryan's mother, said.
The Morgans say there was no reasoning with the principal or with the school superintendent.
"He said, 'The board can give your son full two-year expulsion, I'm asking you not to go before them,'" Audrey Morgan said.
They went anyway, saying they had nothing to lose, only to see the meeting minutes already recommend expulsion.
Roy Morgan says he can't accept that, but accepts his son's decision.
"He said 'I'm going to turn this in' and you know what, I commend my son for making that decision. It was the right decision," he said.
School board officials issued a statement Wednesday night saying due to confidentiality reasons they can't discuss the specifics of this case, but that "purposeful possession of weapons is a serious offense and deserves careful consideration by the administration and the school board."
Hardly an issue of a kid "doing good" and being punished for it.
Motive, motive, motive.
The essence of nearly all crime is motive and that includes the obverse of direct motive, negligence - failure to exercize positive motive when it was an option.
The lad had no motive to conceal the weapon for the purpose of later use. He concealed it temporarily to keep it out of the hands of anyone else, and then turned it in.
The judgements of the school administrators (who come out of the same groups of people who become teachers/educators) reflects ignorance and stupidity; which given the SAT scores educators (lowest of all professions), is no surprise.
A similar incident happened in Austin last year, except the weapon was a .25 cal handgun. A kid found it and turned it into the office.
The student was sent home "pending an investigation" of the incident. I think it was over two weeks before the student was allowed back on the campus.
They'd better have something to hide behind. If you punish a troublemaker while giving a good kid a pass for vaguely similar activity, Al and Jesse and the rest of the troublemaker lobby will take you to court. Zero Intelligence is the codification of throwing good kids under the wheels so you can't be called unfair when you punish one of the bad ones.
On a similar note. If there would have been an actual incident at the school where someone was shooting students, and this kid came up behind him and wrestled it away, he would still be expelled since he would then be in "purposeful possession" of a weapon.
Ill. is a messed up state anyway. My husband got a parking ticket there once in 1970. He payed it and moved on with life. In 1996 he went to renew his driver's license and Oregon said that he couldnt renew as Illinois had suspended his driving prevliges there in 1971 because of an unpaid ticket. He contacted Ill. to clear it up and they have no records going back that far yet they say that he privileges are still revoked in that state (He was just passing through on his way back to here). He told them to clear it up, they said they cant because they dont know what its for but he still cant drive there anyway. Oregon says they cant allow him a license to drive here until Ill. tells them what the reason was for. Carch 22. We are still fighting it to this day. So for Ill. to pull shit like this dosnt surprise me a bit. Those people are messed up.
Mac
Usually school boards are thoroughly bullwinkled. It is the administrators who should lose their freedom and their jobs. Expulsions are rigged. If he's special ed, all the more reason to be rid of him, he would lower their precious test scores.
To the school districts, kids are a commodity, not real people, and therefore can be treated like meat.
That's for little kids, and real guns. This was a pellet gun and a teenager.
The School board needs to be sued to the point where everyone in the district will have either home school or go to private schools, because the District doesn't have any money for indoctrination.
Zero tolerance == zero intelligence.
No they'd run out throwing flowers. Then be promptly captured and beheaded.
If he hadn't, the "school resource officer" or other school system policeman probably would have shot him.
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