This is one of the more interesting routes to homeschooling I have read.
Friday, September 22, 2006 , a knife somehow gets from Tyler D’Allesandro’s father’s workshop into his school bag. He noticed it at school and showed his friend. A third boy “grabbed it and brandished it toward other students ‘in a menacing manner.’” Tyler’s friend took the knife back, put it back in the bag and the incident was over.
Or so he thought.
But on the following Monday morning, a parent complained to the school’s dean, Michael Brumbaugh. According to the lawsuit, Brumbaugh drove Tyler home and told Tyler to let him in. Tyler’s mother, Kelly D’Allesandro, was inside taking a shower, and Brumbaugh knew that, the suit said.Without conferring with Kelly D’Allesandro, Brumbaugh found the knife, then took the knife and Tyler back to school, the suit said. Chicago Sun-Times
For some odd reason, the parents were not happy to find out about all this afterwards. So what starts out as a case where zero tolerance may have gone awry escalates into school officials taking on the role of police officers and searching private homes for evidence. But it gets better.
[Principal Terry] Silva told them their son was being suspended for 10 days. They think the suspension was retaliation for their complaints. They kept complaining, all the way up to Supt. Donald Hendricks, and the district kept increasing the discipline against Tyler, the suit said.Ultimately, the district recommended that Tyler be expelled. Fed up, Kelly and Michael D’Allesandro decided to home-school their son. Ibid.
Expelled in retaliation for your parents complaining about officials entering your home without your knowledge? I do not think I would want to send my child back, either, even if all were resolved in a satisfactory manner.
Welcome to homeschooling. But it doesn’t always mean that your problems with the school district go away.
Had they entered my home while I was in the shower I think I may have filed a police report! Completely crossed the line–oh, that makes me so mad!
The school could get in a lot of trouble for the student getting driven somewhere without parental permission not to mention that the dean could get in trouble for having a student in his car and telling the student to open the house for him. Seems to me that confiscating a knife from a private home could be called theft or unlawful seizure of property. Zero tolerance is a bit rediculous. In order for there to be a “crime” there really should be some intent.
Sunny, I agree. And it seems like the school official should have known better. It was a pretty dumb thing to do.
And why did he need the knife? It is apparent that the young man wasn’t denying anything, so why the need for the knife? Some small consequence might have been appropriate…or at least not so objectionable as to have led to a lawsuit. But expulsion? And apparently in response to parents complaining about school officials entering their home without their knowledge?
The whole thing just didn’t make sense. It’s insane!
And I don’t know if homeschooling the kid really solved any of that.
What really reeks about the situation is that when the parents tried to address the problem with the school officials, they not only closed ranks and defended the dean, but further punished the child for his parents actions. Were the parents even contacted about the initial incident? Why has the dean not first spoken with the parents and asked them to search for the knife in question? I agree with Shawna, this is definately a case to take to the police and to court, not only for the invasive manner in which the dean entered the family’s home, but for the manner in which he entirely bypassed the parents in the disciplinary process.
Wow, so many things violated there! Thank goodness she didn’t walk out of the shower to find them there. I would have started found something and started swining!
This is the kind of thing that makes you shake your head in disbelief.
I hope the family is following up with criminal and civil charges, otherwise the school district thinks they can get away with this.
You are all so very right. And yes, I hope she follows up and does not just drop the case.
I do not know that homeschooling really solved anything, either. It is sad to feel forced into a decision like that.