Copyright 1999 The Atlanta Constitution
The Atlanta
Journal and Constitution
February 2, 1999, Tuesday, CONSTITUTION
EDITION
SECTION: LOCAL NEWS; Pg. 01B
LENGTH: 819 words
SERIES: Home
HEADLINE: Expelled kids may rate Cobb
education;
Entitled to schooling? Lawyers say system's
responsibility to students wouldn't stop with expulsion.
BYLINE: Diane R. Stepp
BODY:
Cobb County school administrators Monday recommended permanent
expulsion for two seventh-graders caught with a gun and ammunition at school
last week.
But the system's own lawyers are now saying that, even if the
boys are kicked out of school, the county will still be obligated to educate
them, even if it means providing private tutors, once they're out of jail. And
if the two boys, both special education students, are found to
have disabilities that would keep them from making sound
judgments regarding weapons, they can't be expelled at all.
The two
students, ages 12 and 14, appeared Monday in Cobb County Juvenile Court, where
prosecutors formally charged them with carrying a weapon within a school safety
zone, possession of a pistol or revolver by a minor and carrying a concealed
weapon. Under state law, the boys face up to five years behind bars. Judge Adele
L. Grubbs ordered the boys to remain at the Cobb County Youth Detention Center
until trial. Their next court date is scheduled for Feb. 10.
Later in
the day and in a separate action, the county school system sent out a letter to
the parents of the two Campbell Middle School students informing them it was
recommending that their sons be permanently expelled, in keeping with a tough
new weapons policy adopted by the school board last summer.
In the past,
Cobb County students caught with a loaded weapon on school property were given
the option of attending an alternative school for a year before returning to
their regular schools. Under the new guidelines, students possessing a loaded
firearm at school "no longer have a place in Cobb," said school system spokesman
Jay Dillon.
The students arrested last week are the first affected by
the new policy, and only now are administrators discovering the policy's
implications and limits.
The 12-year-old is accused of taking a
.25-caliber semiautomatic pistol and a clip containing six bullets to school. He
said he took it at the request of the 14-year-old, who is also accused of having
possession of the pistol. Dillon says the school has eyewitnesses who say the
clip was placed in the gun during the two days it was on campus.
While
the two youths are in custody, the state is obligated to pick up the tab for
educating them. But school system attorney Sylvia Eaves said that once they
leave state custody, the local school system is required to continue educating
the students.
"That does not mean it has to be in a Cobb school
building," Dillon said.
He said the students might be taught by a
certified teacher at home or at a mutual meeting place such as a public library.
"It's not like they're going to be going to Westminster," said Dillon.
He said providing a certified teacher for these two students until they
graduate in five years could run $ 130,000 to $ 490,000, depending on the level
of special services they require. The average cost educating a special
education student in Cobb is $ 8,000 a year, compared with
about $ 5,000 for regular students.
"That's lower than the potential
cost of having loaded weapons in our school," he said.
Complicating the
permanent expulsion policy even further is the fact that the two students
involved are enrolled in Campbell Middle School's behavioral disorders program
and so enjoy protections under the federal Individuals With Disabilities
Education Act.
As prescribed by the school's new policy, a
panel of Cobb parents and educators will hear an appeal of the Campbell Middle
School case today if the students' parents disagree with the permanent expulsion
recommendation. The matter can then be appealed further to the county school
board and to the state school board.
Also today, a group of
psychologists and educators will meet to determine if the two boys'
disabilities mitigate their responsibility for the weapons
infractions, said Dillon.
If the students' misconduct is a manifestation
of their disability, then the school system cannot
discipline them, said Eaves, the school attorney.
If
the misconduct is unrelated to disability, the federal law
still restricts the school system. "If a child carries a weapon to school, the
school system can remove the student for not more than 45 days to an interim
educational setting. They have to continue to educate the child. Where we do it
is up to the school system, as long as the child receives the necessary
education," said Eaves.
When he is freed, the parents
of the 12-year-old said, they will send their son to a private school. The boy's
mother said last week she already had made arrangements for him to attend
Victory Academy in Cobb County, a church-run private school.
"We're
already working on getting him to another school," said the child's father,
Wyman Hall, 33, who lives in Atlanta. "If they did let him come back, he's not
going back (to Campbell). We're going to take him out of that environment."
LOAD-DATE: February 3, 1999
