Zero Tolerance Lunacy at Edison High School

Below is another classic example of ZT Lunacy. A disaster that could happen to any family in America today that has children in a public school with Zero Tolerance Policies. Read this and have someone with children that thinks ZT is a good thing read it and see if they still think it is such a good thing!

Brad's Story as told by his mother Carol:

Do you know what's in your car?
My son, Brad Monroe, is a 16 year old junior at Edison High School in Huntington Beach, California. On Friday October 6, 2000, another student at Edison High had jumped in the back of Brad's pick-up truck as Brad was backing up in the school parking lot. A supervision aide and two school administrators instructed Brad to stop his truck. They claimed Brad was driving recklessly. Not using very good judgement like 16-year-olds do, Brad decided to just back up across the parking lot, which was fairly empty because it was after the lunch hour. He was not speeding or doing donuts, but to them they thought he was driving recklessly. What happened after that, has become a day we would never forget.

Brad was exiting the parking lot when he observed the supervision aide motioning for him to stop in his rear view mirror. The aide and one of the administrators began searching his car for what seemed to Brad, no good reason. He was angry, he did not know they were allowed to do this. He felt violated of his constitutional rights. He was extremely angry about this and said; "this is F___ BS" and I'm sure this only made them more determined to harass him. They told him they could search his car for any reason because he signed a parking permit. They continued to search his car accusing him of smoking etc. My son does not smoke! There were no cigarettes in the car; there were no drugs, no drug paraphernalia. He had an empty Dannon water bottle in the car. They smelled it and questioned him about the smell of it. It did not smell like anything but old water having set in his car. They asked him if it was a bong. This water bottle was just a water bottle! It had not been altered or used for any other purpose. If they suspected anything then why did they not confiscate it and have it tested? I will tell you why; they did not smell anything because there wasn't anything. This was just an excuse so they could search his car and harass him. Upon the search they found a rescue pocketknife in the glove box of his car.

At this point, the administrators had to go because of a more important call on their radios. My son was told he could not park in the parking lot for 2 weeks and that his mom could pick up the knife at the office.

My son came home and told me what had happened. He couldn't believe they searched his car. Neither could I. Unfortunately that was not the end of it.

About 4:00 p.m. that evening, I got a call to come down and speak to the Principal, of Edison High School. I took Brad with me figuring it had something to do with what had happened earlier. Upon my arrival the principal told me he had not intended for me to bring Brad along. I asked him "doesn't this concern him?" He said that it did but he did not want Brad to interrupt or say anything until he was finished telling me what he had to say. Brad agreed.

I got the story pretty much the way it happened with a little change in how the bad language was used stating that Brad had used the language in a more name calling manor and that he had apparently been driving recklessly in the parking lot in the past (last year, I was never told of this before). None of this was an expellable or suspendable offense. However, then the principal brought out the knife and proceeded to call this 3-inch pocketknife a 9-inch locking blade. This was grounds for expulsion. He then proceeded to tell me that since I was such a valued employee of the school they would send him to the continuation school, Valley Vista, a school that would not be appropriate for my son. I pleaded with him to just suspend him and give him trash duty or even community service. By this time my son was in tears realizing the seriousness of what was happening. He was suspended for 5 days while the paperwork went to the District for his expulsion. Because he was a resource student an IEP (Individual Education Plan) meeting had to be held regarding his placement.

My son was guilty of nothing except not cleaning out his car. His 22-year-old brother, Jeff Monroe, a Los Angeles County Lifeguard had used Brad's car at the end of the summer. He used a rescue pocketknife regularly in his routine at work. Late that summer he was called into work and his car would not start – a dead battery. He used Brad's truck to drive to work that day. He put the knife in the glove box of Brad's car and forgot about it. My older son returned to school in Bakersfield at CSUB around September 14th and never retrieved his pocketknife from Brad's glove box. Brad was not aware Jeff had left it in his car. He had cleaned his car a couple of times, but had not cleaned the glove box. To be honest, if he would have known his brother had left this knife in his car he probably would have left it there because he didn't realize it was against any rule. I would have to agree - neither did I. In the parent handbook that all parents are given at the start of each school year it states under rules of student conduct:

"POSSESSION OR USE ON THE SCHOOL GROUNDS OF WEAPONS, INSTRUMENTS, OR SUBSTANCE DESIGNED FOR OR CAPABLE OF DOING BODILY HARM. This violation calls for immediate suspension and parent conference. An administrative decision will be made to determine whether a student will be arrested and/or removed from EHS".

Where does this mention? This includes your car parked on school grounds. How would any reasonable person know this! This would not occur to the reasonable person! They have called this knife a 9-inch locking knife. However, I have come to find out that according to the "In Re Rosalio law" the sharpened portion of the blade measures a knife making this particular knife 3 inches (a weapon is still defined as 2 1/2 inches) according to what I was told later on. I had never seen this knife before and have not seen it since the day the High school principal, held it up in front of me. This knife was not designed to be a weapon, but a tool.

This knife is used for cutting ropes etc. to be used as a tool. How is this any different than having a tire iron or screwdriver in your car? Where was the intent to harm or threaten any one? He did not know it was even there. Where was the common sense here?

My son had never been in trouble before. He had never been in a fight or shown any violent behavior of any kind. He is not a criminal; in fact he is a beach lifeguard trained to save lives. Of course he is not an angel either, just a normal 16 year old teenager.

This incident was a nightmare and should not have happened. Under the rigid guidelines of "Zero Tolerance" every effort was made to destroy my son. The impact this has had on his life will never be reversed. The stigma attached to this will no doubt follow him through the rest of his high school years and beyond. Not to mention that he will find it difficult to ever trust a person of authority again! Brad could have recklessly sped out of the parking lot and only been possibly suspended. He has since told us that he wishes he would have kept on driving and not stopped when he observed people motioning him to stop. He could have said he didn't see them. The fact that he stopped should indicate that he felt like he had nothing to hide. His only crime was not knowing exactly what was in his car and being what he is, a teenager.

Several weeks went by as we waited for the date of our first scheduled hearing. We received a letter from the Police Dept. The school had reported the incident without us even being there to give our side of it. Now it looked as though we might have had a juvenile case pending. After realizing that this mess was not going to go away and how serious it all was, my husband and I decided to hire a lawyer. However, as we found out, he could only do so much because of the way schools conduct themselves. It was like fighting a battle with your hands tied behind your back. But I think the fact that we had a lawyer was the only reason that it did not end worse than it did.

The search the school did on my son's car was illegal for one thing. In order for it to be a legal search the administrators would have had to have a tip of some kind indicating that Brad had a knife in his car and had threatened someone. Had we been in a court of law this would have been dismissed right then. We did not have that luxury.

My son would have been out of school for 3 months had it not been for the fact that he was a resource student and was protected in other ways through the loopholes of Special Education. I never thought I would be glad that he had a minor learning disability. At our IEP (Individual Education Plan) meeting, I was instructed by an attorney to stand by the fact that my son would not get Free Appropriate Public Education- FAPE. You should know this if this ever happens to you. Because of this, and the nature of my son's case, the District Special Education administrator stated he believed Brad was not harmful to anyone and that he had no problem with Brad staying in school pending the hearing, which turned out to be 3 months later. These things do not happen quickly.

At our hearing we pled our case and had several friends and even witnesses seated behind us. Our attorney supplied a legal brief citing many code violations, violations of Brad's constitutional rights, and case law pertaining to our case. I read a three page prepared speech on the character of my son and the negative consequences of Zero Tolerance when blindly applied with no discretion of the individual student. It was difficult and very emotional for me. The administrators and supervision aide stated their side of the facts and even went above and beyond by bringing up incidents that had happened since this incident which were hugely exaggerated trying to make my son look as bad as they possibly could. We were dismissed and told we would receive word that evening. We did about 8:45 p.m. by messenger. That's the way they do things.

Their findings were as follows:

"We find that Brad Monroe was found in violation of code 48900 possession of a weapon on school grounds".

"We recommend that Brad Monroe be expelled for the school year 2000 – 2001. However we recommend that the expulsion be suspended and that appropriate placement be decided by the IEP Team."

The following day we had our IEP meeting, which I was told by the SPED administrator that this was just a formality because the appropriate placement for Brad was to stay where he was. However the administrator in charge of the junior class was sent with his own agenda, supplied by himself, and the 3 other administrators who were involved from the beginning. He recommended that Brad be removed from Edison High school and placed in another school. I could not believe my ears! I thought, would this ever end? Luckily, the Sped administrator told the junior class administrator he had no basis for that argument and that he could not do that.

There is justice after all and some administrators who have common sense and a brain! Thank god for that!

The superintendent of the school and the hearing panel claimed they followed due process, however due process through the school system is not the same as courts. They seem to be above the law and do things with their own slant on it. We would have liked to have continued this in a court but were told by our lawyer and many others that schools are protected by immunity. If we were to lose our case, we would not only be out our attorney costs but the schools attorneys' costs as well. We are not rich, so this was not an option for us and not for many other families, which is why it continues to happen over and over again. Schools have put themselves above the law because they know they can and that's just the way it is until someone with deep pockets finally fights this all the way to the Supreme Court.

Today, I read in the paper that the American Bar Association has voted to recommend the end of Zero Tolerance policies in schools claiming that schools have gone too far in their harsh punishments of children and treating them as criminals for minor infractions. I know this is only a start but I feel like a prayer has been answered.

Here are some things I learned the hard way. I hope it will help you.

Call your school board members. They are not unapproachable. You voted for them! I found one school board member to be helpful and sympathized with my problem. This individual had serious doubts about the whole Zero Tolerance policies issue and how it was being applied but told me she was a lone wolf in her opinions. It does not hurt to have the board know the details of your case ahead of time. This may not be due process, but at least the board will know all the facts. Call all the board members personally so they can't excuse themselves from your appeal later on

Get as many letters from teachers, employers, friends, and relatives about your son or daughter's character.
If you decide to appeal to the school board and you should unless the decision from the hearing panel is positive, don't count on what they tell you as far as forwarding all of your information to the board. The District office told me that all letters pertaining to my son's character and the legal brief that my lawyer prepared for the panel hearing would be forwarded to the school board. This was part of the due process. On the day of the hearing with the school board I called to see if they had everything. They didn't. I made extra copies of everything at my attorney's advice.
Prepare what you plan to say to the panel ahead of time even if you have to read it.
Last but not least, I know it is expensive, but if you can afford it, get an attorney. It doesn't cost anything to talk to one. Before we got to that point I spoke with 3 different attorneys who advised me of things to say and do that were very helpful and they didn't charge anything for that. Without that advice, my son would not have been in school for the 3 months while pending the hearing. If you find an attorney that has a heart and is angered by the atrocity you are facing, you may be able to negotiate a price you can afford. That's what we did. It gave me great piece of mind and was worth every penny. Without an attorney you can be railroaded at every turn. The districts and the schools hold all the cards, they can afford the attorneys, and after all you are paying for them.
In closing:

I hope this never happens to you. The fact that you are reading this means something similar probably has. Some think we were lucky. When you read the many stories like mine, I guess we were, but something was destroyed in my son, something was lost, something will never be the same. My son will never trust again and this experience has definitely changed him in ways I haven't even fully seen yet. We are all biddered over this. We worry every day that it is not over, that they will find some minor idiotic stupid thing to finally get him out. They still won't allow him to park in the parking lot. He has a year and a half to go. I think it will effect him the rest of his life. One of the other Zero Tolerance stories talks about McCarthy being alive and well. How true! If you have a pocketknife in your car, you must be a criminal! Let's search every student's car and round em up.

I never gave Zero Tolerance any thought before. Like everyone else, I just thought that schools were doing their best to keep our children safe. Like everyone else, I thought it was a good idea. What it is, is another way we are losing are freedoms and something must be done! Obviously, if my son had brought this knife on to campus and threatened someone with it, we would be talking about a different situation. If a disturbed individual makes up his or her mind to do something that drastic, they don't care about getting expelled. We need to have more programs in school that deals with being kind to one another and respectful to others. School administrators need to show students the same respect that they want to get in return. The only way the violence will stop is getting at the root of the problem!

Thank you for taking the time to read our story, I hope it will help you.

Carol