Gun gets student expelled(NE)

omaha.com ^ | 9 December, 2010 | Maunette Loeks

[marktwain]

A Scottsbluff High School student expelled for possessing a firearm on school grounds had reportedly used the weapon for hunting purposes. There was no intent to cause harm to anyone, officials say. Advertising

According to a Scottsbluff Police Report, Assistant Principal Dustin Shaddick alerted School Resource Officer Steve Lopez that a firearm had been found on school grounds the morning of Dec. 2.

A female student reported to her boyfriend that she had seen the weapon and ammunition in a 17-year-old male student's vehicle and school officials were alerted.

“The weapon has been described to me as a shotgun,” Scottsbluff Public Schools Superintendent Rick Myles said.

Scotts Bluff Police Captain Brian Wasson confirmed that police confiscated the weapon, which he said had been placed under the seat of a vehicle. Wasson said the student told police that he used the weapon for hunting and had left it in his vehicle.

“The student has been described as a good kid, who unfortunately, messed up,” Wasson said. “He was cooperative with the investigation.”

The student, who was not cited or arrested, has not been named. Wasson said a report of the incident has been forwarded to the Scotts Bluff County Attorney's Office for consideration of charges.

School district policy calls for expulsion of a student carrying, possessing or displaying firearms, weapons or other dangerous objects on school grounds, according to the Scottsbluff High School Handbook. Myles explained that the policy is required by the state's Student Discipline Act.

The act requires that all schools adopt a policy requiring a student be expelled for at least one full calendar year. A federal gun-free schools act also calls for the mandatory one-year expulsion. Both acts do say that the superintendent or a chief administering officer can modify the expulsion on an individual basis.

[marktwain]

The law should be changed. This is part of delegitimizing a constitutional right.

[rarestia]

So let me understand this. If you bring a gun on school property to hunt with after school, you’re Federally mandated to be expelled for one year? So the kid loses one year of education for practicing a Constitutional RIGHT? We’re in upside-down-land where Rights are able to be regulated away and kids are kicked out of school for a year for practicing those Rights.

Get the Fed out of schools! Get rid of the Dept. of Ed! Down with the NEA!

[backwoods-engineer]

Sad. In 1985, we kept shotguns in our trucks at school all the time during bird seasons. Sometimes, the superintendent of schools would come over to see how we did in the morning hunt.

[mikey_hates_everything]

I don’t get this automatic expulsion thing unless the kid is bringing the firearm to school to show off or brandish. Obviously that’s a safety issue.

Otherwise, if the kid is bringing the firearm to school to kill classmates and/or teachers, an expulsion is hardly a deterrent. This came about thanks to Columbine. Would those kids NOT have killed if there was the threat of expulsion?

If the firearm is locked up and secure, then it is not a safety issue, it’s most likely an oversight, so why should there be a punishment as severe as expulsion?

[Ford4000]

The students who reported this ought to be shunned by the rest of the student body. What a couple of tools.

[theDentist]

kid, stay out. They obviously haven’t the brains God gave an ostrich.

[susannah59]

Somebody send that girl and her boyfriend each a pack of Depends. They are gonna wet themselves if someone uses something sharp to cut a steak!

In fact, just send a case to the school and they can share with the administration.

[sourcery]

The law is an Unconstitutional Bill of Attainder. It imposes a penalty by legislation without requiring conviction by a court for a crime, and without the punishment being ordered by the judge pursuant to the conviction, and where the punishment is triggered by the exercise of a Constitutional right.

[Red in Blue PA]

GCA68 and every other gun law which got us here are Unconstitutional.

The NRA should be attempting to overturn these blatant infringements, instead of merely working at the periphery.