The parents of an Eagle Scout who was suspended from his upstate New York high school for a month over a 2-inch pocketknife he kept locked in his car have retained a lawyer to appeal their school district's zero-tolerance policies and demand that their son's record be cleared.
Education lawyer Victor DeBonis is working pro bono for the family of 17-year-old Matthew Whalen, who has been banned from Lansingburgh High School for 20 school days.
Whalen's father said he hopes the school board will reverse the decision of Lansingburgh Central School District Superintendent George Goodwin, who extended Matthew's initial five-day suspension into a monthlong sentence — and he is threatening a lawsuit if all other options are exhausted.
"If they overturn the superintendent's actions and expunge my son's record, I guess we're done," said Bryan Whalen, who said DeBonis filed the appeal Monday morning. "If they don't, then there will be further steps."
Whalen says the school district violated his son's due process by disregarding state education guidelines when they suspended him. Whalen said he received written notification of the suspension six days too late, according to state law.
The high school senior has nearly completed the term of his suspension, but Whalen's family hopes to have his record cleared by the time the teen applies to the U.S. Military Academy.
"It should be just reversed and expunged because it was just wrong — procedurally they did everything they could do wrong," the father said - FOX News Story
I really think that this country has flat out lost its mind. School's are getting out of control with this so called zero tolerance crap. Use your common sense for crying out loud. You are suppose to be teaching our kids and some of the stuff that you come up with is the biggest pant load of crap I have ever heard.
These people that we are putting in charge of educating the youth don't have brain cell one to handle every day decisions and yet they are the leaders of our youths education?
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