Posted on 10/09/2009 7:48:04 AM PDT by ReagansRaiders
Soldier suspended from school Posted: Oct 8, 2009 05:26 PM
A NEWS10 EXCLUSIVE By MARK O'BRIEN
LANSINGBURGH -- High school senior Matthew Whalen is the kind of student any parent would want.
He's an Eagle Scout, on the honor roll, taking Advanced Placement classes, and never been in trouble with the law. He's received commendations from the City of Troy and the Boy Scouts of America for saving a woman's life, and this past summer, he completed Army basic training. All of it was accomplished before the age of 17.
"I'm just trying to do what I can while I can," Matthew says.
His goal is to attend the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, a dream since he was in grade school.
"I have a first-grade yearbook that says I want to be driving tanks in the Army," Matthew says. "I mean, this is something that I know I've always wanted to do."
But the dream could be in jeopardy, thanks to a two-inch pocket knife that officials at Lansingburgh Senior High School found in Matthew's locked car last month. The pocket knife was a gift from his grandfather, Robert Whalen, who's the Hoosick Falls Police Chief. Matthew says he kept the knife in a side compartment and never tried showing it off or threatening anyone with it. Instead it was a part of the survival kit that was his car.
"My car is designed in a way that if I ever broke down, I'd be OK," Whalen explains. "I have a sleeping bag. I have bottled water. I have an MRE. I believe it's better to be prepared and not need it than need it and not have it."
Matthew says school officials approached him on Sept. 21, asking if he had a weapon on him. When Matthew answered he did not, he says the officials asked if he had a knife in his car. Matthew said it was a pocket knife, and took officials to his car when asked. He also turned over the pocket knife when asked.
The Lansingburgh Central School District has a zero-tolerance policy on weapons. According to the district's Codes of Conduct, students are not allowed to have "a weapon of any kind" on school grounds. Even though a pocket knife is not considered a weapon under New York State penal code, the district also prohibits students from possessing anything "that reasonably can be considered a weapon."
According to Matthew, the school suspended him for five days, during which time a Superintendent's hearing was held to determine the extent of his punishment. Matthew's family contends only the high school's principal and athletic director were present, not the Superintendent or the assistant principal who initially suspended Matthew. And despite a letter from Matthew's Scout Master explaining how a pocket knife is a common tool for scouts to have, the district suspended Matthew for another 15 days. The Whalens say they received no explanation as to why, and they claim there was no opportunity to ask.
"I want him to have fair treatment based on his character," says Matthew's father, Bryan Whalen. "It just totally baffles me that they would go after this when they have much bigger fish to fry."
The Whalens say during the Superintendent's hearing, officials admitted that Matthew cooperated fully, didn't have the pocket knife on him, had no intention of using it, and never threatened anyone with it. "They'd already made their decision," Whalen's father says.
In a statement to NEWS10, Superintendent George J. Goodwin says, "We do not comment on discipline related to an individual student. Our policies are clear that weapons are not permitted on school premises and subject to disciplinary consequences."
Legal expert Thomas Carr, of Tully Rinckey PLLC, says school districts are within their rights to impose and enforce safety policies, even if a pocket knife is not considered a weapon under New York State penal law. But he also says such school rules can quickly become so-called "gray areas" that leave the meaning of what's considered a weapon open ended.
"If this 17-year-old is driving his car to school," Carr says, "let's face it, the tire iron in the trunk to change the wheel is much more of a deadly weapon than a one-and-a-half inch blade knife."
Carr also says the Whalens might have grounds to pursue legal action against the district if Matthew felt he had no choice but to allow school officials to search his car.
At this point, the Whalens are not sure when or if they will sue the district. Instead, they want the district to reinstate Matthew immediately and remove this from his official student record.
"He needs to be doing the application for his admission to West Point right now," Bryan Whalen says. "They're delaying that, and that could be very costly for him."
Matthew says he wants to follow in the military footsteps of his father and grandfather. His grandfather, Robert Whalen, received two Purple Hearts for his service in the Vietnam War. Bryan Whalen served in Operation Iraqi Freedom and at Ground Zero, as his unit was on the scene by the evening of Sept. 11, 2001. He's also received the Soldier's Medal from the U.S. Army, and he pulled survivors from a burning helicopter that had crashed at the Stratton Air National Guard Base during an air show crash in 1991.
Matthew guesses a student must have told school officials, but he doesn't know who did it or why. His father thinks it might have been a prank to see Matthew get a little heat from administrators and that the intent was for it to never get this far.
"It's just plain wrong of what they've done," he says. "It isn't a weapon!"
But the family feels the district overreacted, if not for suspending Matthew in the first place, then for adding an additional 15 days to the original suspension.
"If they had told me, 'Take this out of your car,' I would have said alright, and it never would have been an issue," Matthew says. "I was upset with it, but I can understand that. They have the zero-tolerance rule."
The district provides a tutor for Matthew for 90 minutes every day; he's banned from stepping on school grounds for any reason whatsoever, including assignments and sporting events. Matthew says it's hard to cram more than six hours of work into his tutor time, and he says his work is not being graded until he returns to school. All he wants is to return to class.
"The rest of my life could be affected by this," he says.
I like it!!!!
The punishment certainly doesn’t fit the “crime”. I think the reason they came down so hard on this kid was his chosen profession rather than the the 2” penknife.
His family needs to sue. Considering the life-long impact the actions of these extreme left-wing educationalists on this kid, they need to get his record expunged.
Here is what I did when one of my sons was suspended for a TINY pocket-knife — actually a pocket grooming aid more than a knife.
I hired a lawyer who was a lawyer for a local school board and also on his own school board. I contacted the State representative who wrote my state’s legislation and talked to the legislative aide who drafted the legislation. I confirmed that “tools” are meant to be exempted even under zero-tolerance. I also contacted the local paper and a reported came out, but they did not cover the story.
In the end we got the suspension reduced, but not revoked. My son had the knife drop out of his backpack in class and a student saw it and snitched to a teacher who didn’t like my son. He had forgotten the knife was there. But they hammered him. The arrogance of the school officials was amazing to behold!
Your godson was targeted. Why? They do not demand to see cars like you describe except for a reason. In any case it is insanity!
This is no doubt complete insanity, but it is time to lawyer up on this one.
“Even though a pocket knife is not considered a weapon under New York State penal code, the district also prohibits students from possessing anything “that reasonably can be considered a weapon.””
I’d go after them on the grounds that every car in the student parking lot has a lug nut wrench that is more of a “weapon” than the pocket knife in question. I’d start a suit naming the principal and chairman and board of education as individuals, as well as the school system. It’s time to go after these b*******.
Exactly
Remember the Statists have taken the reins of power and they have no problem using coercion if it suits their purposes. This includes co-opting law enforcement to achieve their aims. About a month ago there was a video posted on the subject of taking the 5th amendment when questioned by law enforcement when you are the focus of an investigation.
The best lesson that Matthew can learn is that authority figures in the government cannot be given unconditional trust. I teach my children to respect authority figures and to be polite, but also to be vigilant in defending their rights.
These cockroaches need to be exposed, and the buried up to their necks in the kind of publicity they can’t stand.
Hey, teaching is only part of a school's job. Didn't you get the memo? /sarc
No, the logical conclusion for these bureaucrats would be to cut off all the kids' hands.
Is there an email / contact person at this sorry school district? Someone needs to sue their a$$ off.
and/or he wanted to go to West Point.
It sound like they wanted to destroy this kid’s future.
As was noted in the main story-a tire iron in the truck could be considered a lethal weapon. Is the school district going to ban those as well.
I carried a pocket knife to school only after I stopped wearing my Cub Scout knife on my belt. I only stopped carrying a pocket knife with me a few years ago when I had to take it out to board an airplane.
This cannot stand. This is not a safety issue. This is the political assassination of an Eagle Scout and should be fought as a political assassination by the entire community.
I believe this country is now beyond saving. I hope I am wrong but that is a forlorn hope.
You are too kind.
I would recommend that his family consider home-schooling him. When a school suspends common sense, it is time to be done with the school. Also, every other decent kid in the school should be immediately pulled.
Might I suggest you look into a good charter school or on-line school? He is almost finished anyway. That would give him more time to complete his training in preparation for real life - not PC laden, garbage filled schools.
How did the school gain access to this young man’s LOCKED car? Morons.
don’t put the knives in student’s cars.....put them in the school officials cars who did this.........
I started carrying a knife to school when in Cub Scouts. I've carried one ever since.
I have no idea where that first sentence came from.
No Nobel Prize for me, I guess. Or Pulitzer, for that matter.
I’d donate to this kid’s legal defense fund in a heartbeat.
They did it because Matthew has already accomplished more than they in their stunted little bureaucratic lives will ever think of doing.
Always jealous of the achievers.
And if Matthew never showed his knife to others, why was he singled out for this kind of search anyway?
Make sure to do it to administrators and teachers.
Alinsky tactic of “make the enemy live up to his own rules”.
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