Student Expulsions

In a sternly worded decision, a federal judge on Tuesday upheld the expulsions of six students for fighting during a high school football game--saying that despite help from the Rev. Jesse Jackson and a team of lawyers, they had failed to prove their rights were violated by the school district's policy against violence. U.S. District Judge Michael McCuskey found that the Decatur, Ill., district "did not act illegally, improperly or deny the students their constitutional rights."

Los Angeles school district officials are moving to retake control of Birmingham Community Charter High School, citing numerous alleged problems at the campus that broke away from the system three years ago. L.A. Unified Supt. John Deasy has faulted the leaders of the Lake Balboa campus for allegedly mishandling student expulsions and services to disabled students and for failing to respond adequately to allegations of racial discrimination. School officials said they are looking into the allegations, but are aware of no major problems.

About 20 college students and community activists on Friday protested the expulsion of three Golden West College students who were arrested two months ago for staging a sit-in at the campus. The demonstrators gathered outside Coast Community College District headquarters "We were kicked out of class and now we are being denied an education," said Lupe Lopez, 21, who spent two days in jail.

Preschool teachers who are highly stressed because of classroom conditions, depression or other factors are far more likely than their colleagues to recommend expulsion for children with behavioral problems, according to a study released Thursday. Conducted by Yale University's Edward Zigler Center in Child Development and Social Policy, the study found that of teachers who reported high job stress, 14.3% also reported one or more expulsions in the last year, while 4.

Two San Marcos High School students may be expelled for drawing a picture of a lynching and leaving it on the desk of the only black girl in their English class. The girls were suspended last week, more than a month after the incident. Authorities said they drew a picture of a black girl being lynched that included the phrase: "Every class should plant a tree. Here's our tree." Cheron Davison, 16, said she left the class Oct.

A fifth-grader slaps his teacher and bites another student. A high school junior steals money from a teacher and is suspected of several other campus thefts. A middle school teenager pulls a prank on a teacher by offering chocolate that is actually a laxative bar. In all three cases, school officials want the students expelled.

This is a factory town, a union town, a town where folks have long been able to ask a stranger one question--labor or management?--and know much of what they needed to know. It is also a town laid low time and again by that divide. Now, after weeks of grueling debate over the expulsions of seven African American high school students for fighting, and over the ensuing protests led by the Rev. Jesse Jackson, "Strike Town, U.S.A.

A 15-year-old high school sophomore faces expulsion and criminal charges for carrying a loaded gun and a knife on the campus of Ocean View High School, officials said Friday. The teen-ager, a student at Westminster High School whose name was not released because of his age, reportedly was meeting his girlfriend at the school Thursday afternoon when teachers stopped him and discovered the weapons.

Sneaking stuff into school has been a teenage rite of passage since James Dean ruled the silver screen. But in recent years parents have expressed fear that more than cigarettes are flowing into schools--that the tools of deadly crime and culture are making their way into the educational experience. Educators have responded by drawing up tighter rules--often under the heading of "zero tolerance"--that sometimes leave little room for innocent transgression.

Fountain Valley School District principals may be asked to review and make recommendations on student expulsion cases under a proposal favored by some school board members. Under current policy, the Board of Trustees conducts expulsion hearings, but some members said they believe an administrative panel of school principals would be in a better position to make decisions about a student's academic future.

Even Daniel Bautista's parents agreed he should have been suspended for bringing a knife to school, although they believed their 13-year-old son when he said he had forgotten it was in his pants pocket. But Jorge and Rose Bautista said the eighth-grader did not deserve to be removed from Sycamore Canyon School in Thousand Oaks.

A Christian school in Ontario expelled a student Thursday because her parents are lesbians, according to a letter from the school's superintendent. Freshman Shay Clark, 14, was told to leave Ontario Christian High School after administrators learned of her parents' relationship this week. "Your family does not meet the policies of admission," Supt. Leonard Stob wrote to Tina Clark, Shay's biological mother.

A French school expelled two girls Tuesday for wearing Muslim head scarves, the first students to be kicked out since Paris imposed a ban on religious symbols in state schools last month. In Paris, Education Minister Francois Fillon said about 70 additional students risk expulsion for defying the law. They include three Sikh boys who went to court Tuesday seeking to continue wearing their turbans, in the first known court action over the ban.

Three high school students -- a sophomore girl and two junior boys -- have been expelled from an exclusive preparatory school in the Sepulveda Pass for allegedly making a sexually explicit video and distributing it on school grounds. The trio made the video last spring, when the girl was still a freshman, said Rennie Wrubel, head of Milken Community High School, which is affiliated with the Stephen S. Wise Temple. She said none of the three had records of disciplinary problems.

Three seventh-grade boys from a Tulare County school face expulsion after being accused of sexually assaulting at least five girls on campus, school officials said. Tulare County sheriff's detectives began investigating the complaints from girls this week. The boys are accused of holding the girls, groping them and forcing them into sexual positions. No other sex acts are alleged to have occurred, said Sheriff's Lt. Donna Perry. Two of the boys are 12 and one is 13.

Both fraternities involved in Wednesday's deadly predawn melee will be suspended and those found to have participated in the violence will be expelled, San Jose State University President Robert L. Caret said Thursday. "The university will not tolerate thuggish or ganglike behavior from any of its students," Caret said. "Those responsible for it have no place on our campus."

As a member of the Pasadena Board of Education, Bonnie Armstrong found the duty of ruling on student expulsions to be onerous and frustrating. Many of the students, it seemed to her, could have been turned around if someone had paid attention to their problems sooner. "When I saw kids coming before the board with pages of behavioral problems, I'd ask what happened 18 months ago when it was clear there was a behavior problem here," Armstrong said.

Both fraternities involved in Wednesday's deadly predawn melee will be suspended and those found to have participated in the violence will be expelled, San Jose State University President Robert L. Caret said Thursday. "The university will not tolerate thuggish or ganglike behavior from any of its students," Caret said. "Those responsible for it have no place on our campus."

A school can expel a teenage boy who wrote a letter during summer vacation threatening to rape and murder his ex-girlfriend, a divided federal appeals court ruled Wednesday. The Pulaski County school district learned of the threat after one of the eighth-grader's friends stole the letter. Northwood Junior High principal Bob Allison expelled the boy, citing the district's conduct rules. The boy's parents sued.

An honor student who wore a knife to his prom as part of a Scottish outfit avoided possible suspension by agreeing not to return to his high school for a semester, school officials announced Tuesday. Under an agreement with the school, Jeremy Hix, 16, will take college classes until he is allowed to return for the second half of the school year. "I feel that this was the best option that was presented to us," Hix said. "Expulsion won't be on my record, so I won't have anything to explain."