Judge: School Officials Abused Discretion in Zero Tolerance Case
by Jim Brown
June 10, 2004
(AgapePress) - A Colorado court has reprimanded school officials in the city of Greeley over their decision to expel a young student for handling a toy -- a laser pointer shaped like a tiny gun. In 2002, thirteen-year-old Mitch Muller, then a seventh-grader at North Valley Middle School, was expelled was expelled for possession of what the school called a "firearm facsimile." The school officials imposed this penalty because of the state's zero tolerance policy, which bars any firearm or "firearm facsimile that could reasonably be mistaken for an actual firearm" on school grounds.
However, Weld District Court Judge Julie Hoskins decided that officials at North Valley Middle School had abused their discretion by labeling the miniscule laser pointer as a firearm fascimile. The judge ruled that a 2 and 1/2-inch toy gun that can be hidden in the palm of one's hand could not reasonably be mistaken for an actual gun.
Muller's attorney, John Whitehead of the Rutherford Institute, says the Hoskins' ruling is "cause for jubilation" because zero-tolerance cases are very difficult to win. "Finally," he says, "we have a judge who has looked at ... this really crazy area of zero tolerance, where kids are thrown out of school for having Alka-Seltzer or Midol, or a squirt gun -- expelled from school for a year for a squirt gun -- and said, 'Listen, this is really silly. You've abused your discretion here. This boy should never have been expelled from school for having a laser pointer.'"
Public schools have been enforcing zero-tolerance policies since the mid-1990's and according to Whitehead, since the Columbine massacre, they have gotten worse. He hopes the ruling in the Greeley case will send a message to school officials that "compassion and common sense need to be restored to the classroom."
The Rutherford Institute spokesman says his legal group is working toward getting Muller's records "cleaned up" so he and his family can move on. "This is a good kid who just simply happened to pick up another school friend's laser and point it, and the red dot hit the blackboard," he says.
"These are the kinds of things that, when I was a kid, happened on a regular basis," Whitehead adds, "and teachers usually didn't care. But today it's met with expulsion."
Judge Hoskins has in fact ordered the school district to remove Mitch Muller's expulsion from his records. However, according to the Greeley Tribune newspaper, Superintendent Jo Barbie says the district is talking with lawyers about the possibilities of an appeal, although no decision has been made as yet.
