Suspended Honor Student's Friends Try to Organize Graduation Boycott


AP

Lindsay Brown

Friday, May 25, 2001

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ESTERO, Fla. — Friends of a National Merit Scholar who was suspended and banned from graduation after a kitchen knife was found in her car are petitioning other seniors to skip graduation.


Lindsay Brown's friends are pushing the boycott of the May 29 graduation at Estero High School because they believe school officials are going too far in enforcing a campus weapons ban.

"We won't walk unless she walks," said Brittany Scherer, who started the petition drive.

"We've all pretty much grown up together," said Adam Devine, also a senior. "If one person can't walk, the rest of us won't want to."

Principal Fred Bode suspended Brown, 18, for five days and told her she could not participate in school activities, including graduation.

Bode said he hadn't seen the petition and did not think there would be a boycott of graduation. He said he will not change his mind about Brown's punishment.

Bode on Thursday tried to explain himself to about 320 graduating seniors at a breakfast.

"As a public servant, I raised my right hand and said I would follow Florida law and Lee County policy, even if it isn't popular," Bode said he told the students.

Brown was arrested on a felony weapons possession charge after a deputy spotted the kitchen knife in her parked car. Brown said the knife was accidentally left there when she was moving during the weekend.

Bode said that he had no choice but to give Brown the same punishment as other students would get under the school's policy forbidding weapons on campus.

Parents were quick to object to the school's handling of the situation.

"This whole thing is ridiculous," said Jens Romer. "She should be allowed to graduate with the rest of her class."

Parent Sharon Scowden said special consideration should be given in this case.

"It's outrageous," she said. "She was a good student, not a troublemaker."

Bode said there normally would be an appeal of Brown's suspension, but it's a time-consuming process that can't be expedited.

He said the matter is finished, adding Brown "took her finals and we are all going to get on with life."

"It has not been a good ending to what had been a really good year," Bode said.
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Manu Narayan

So is thsi warranted? I am not sure what they mean by kitchen knife. Was this a sharp serrated knife, or a butter knife you get in a normal silverware set?

Even then, it is a kitchen knife?! She left it while moving, but what if it was a gun and she left it while moving.

I really am unsure on how I feel about this. On one hand you can go, she's a good kid, she didn't mean anything by it, but on the other hand they ALL are good kids.

Does the type of 'weapon' even matter in this case? The fact that it is a kitchen knife, does it mean anything?

Should she be suspended but allowed to graduate with her class? What you all feel?

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Manu Narayan

Well, let me ask you this... should it matter if it is a kitchen knife, combat knife, or if she could legally possess it, a gun? Keep in mind that if she were 18, she could legally own a rifle or shotgun.

What if it were a tire iron, and it were on the floor of her car because she had to change a flat? I could kill a person just as dead with one as I could a kitchen knife or a gun.

I don't think that WHAT it is matters as much as the circumstances involved.

First off, here is a girl who is being ARRESTED under FELONY charges of weapons possession. Do you fully understand what it means to be a convicted felon? She can never vote, own a firearm, join the military or work at a government job, work in healthcare, or with children, etc. Essentially she will have her citizenship stripped away because of an honest mistake.

I think this is a perfect example of how our society as a whole has run amok. Our government and media has done what it could to destroy the family and traditional values. No, I'm not trying to drag religeon into this. What I am suggesting is that the government/media has done what it can to take parental influence out of it's kids lives (for example, when spanking becomes child abuse, etc.), doesn't bother to teach them the difference between right and wrong, and instead exposes them to every imagineable perversity (if you have any doubts, listen to some of the music out now). So know that we have kids that join gangs, get pregnant, shoot up schools, drop out of life etc., the government in turn has to come down on the kids with an iron fist, and do what they can to make them wards of the state.

Personally I think that principal Bode should be tarred, feathered, and run out of town on a rail...

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Artist formerly known as Reindeer

The problem that I have with this is the same as I have with a lot of other things: political reactionism without common sense. We're throwing away one of the most defining and wonderful things about our species with these "zero-tolerance" laws. That is the ability to think critically. There is no logic to suspending this girl, though if it were a gun she should obviously be suspended. Though we've thrown away our ability to make these distinctions in favor of reactionary politics.