Fort Myers Honor Student Arrested Under Zero-Tolerance Policy

Wednesday, May 23, 2001
FORT MYERS, Fla. — A National Merit Scholar was sent to jail and will miss graduation after a kitchen knife was found in her car and officials invoked a policy that forbids weapons on campus.

Lindsay Brown, an 18-year-old senior at Estero High School, spent Monday in jail on a felony charge of possession of a weapon on school property and suspended for five days.

Officials saw the knife on the floor of the passenger's side of Brown's car while she was in the school, a report said.

Brown will take her final exams Wednesday and will most likely get her diploma, but she will miss graduation activities and the May 29 commencement.

"They're taking away my memories," Brown said, as she walked out of the Lee County Jail on Monday afternoon after posting $2,500 bail.

"I'm so angry, I won't get to graduate with my friends because of a stupid kitchen knife."

The knife, which has a 5-inch blade, had been left in the car after Brown moved some possessions over the weekend, she said.

Brown said she didn't know it was there until school security and Lee County sheriff's Corporal John Scheall pointed it out to her.

Her family claims the arrest is a case of political correctness run amok.

"Lindsay is a good kid," said her mother Melissa Ashworth, who spent Monday trying to free her daughter from jail. "The punishment is too harsh; she didn't even know the knife was there."

Brown is scheduled to return to court June 22. Brown and her parents hope the arrest will not harm her academic scholarship to Florida Gulf Coast University.

Sheriff Lt. Bill Byrus said he sympathizes with Brown, but said the arrest is not up to the discretion of the officer or based on the student's behavior record.

"This young lady made a bad choice," Byrus said. "But, the statute says what she did meets the probable cause requirements for an arrest.

Lisa Luciani, a school district spokeswoman, said the district is still reviewing the arrest.

-from www.foxnews.com (http://www.foxnews.com)

------------------
-Will

I don't know. That is odd to have a knife in view in the car. I used to bring a Swiss Army knife to school all the time, but it was in my pocket. I wonder if those are banned now.

What I find odd is that the special laws on "public" school property. Citizens in a town pay taxes to operate the school and pay for the property, yet there are different, strange laws that apply only on school grounds. I like to jog and time myself running a mile occasionally on a track and have to use the one at the local high school. I may be breaking some double secret law probably.

Public schools disgust me.

More than just political correctness run amok. Sounds more like a zero-intelligence policy. I can EASILY see how something liek that could happen... kid is helping move over a weekend... few things get left behind in the car.

I am so glad I am not a kid caught up in our school systems.

Last year, we had something similar happen... a girl happened to go to a party where she didn't know that alchohol was being served. When she found out, she left, and even tried to assist the police. For her trouble, she was charged with MIP (Minor in possession) for just being in the VICINITY of the party (never mind no evidence that she was drinking at all). As a result, she lost her job, her place as homecoming queen, a fine, and mandatory alchohol classes.

Meanwhile, more and more kids gradute that are functionally illiterate. What in the bloody h3ll is going on in our schools?



------------------
Artist formerly known as Reindeer

yeah pocket knifes are not allowed at school cause you get suspended if ya have one.my bro got kicked out of summer school last year cause he accidentally brought his knife pen to school(it was left in his pocket from the weekend)