No word yet online on the Brandon Kivi hearing, and it turns out that I misunderstood the purpose of the hearing. He has already been expelled; the hearing is to determine whether the school will press third-degree felony charges against him. The principal is claiming that expulsion is warranted because Brandon had tried to share his inhaler before.
The problem with that argument is that if "delivery of any such drug is a mandatory expulsion offense," as listed in the article, why was the principal allowed to use his judgment and not expel Kivi the first time this happened? Either it's a mandatory offense, or it isn't, and this sounds to me like the school is trying to have it both ways. If the principal felt justified in not expelling Brandon the first time this happened, I don't understand how he can now claim that he has to expel Brandon for this "mandatory" offense.
Update: The hearing is over. The school will not press criminal charges against Kivi, but his expulsion stands:
Kivi's family is relieved it's over.
"I won in a way, but what they (did) to my son was unfair. I'm still angry," said Theresa Hock, Kivi's mother.
Kivi said the ordeal taught him the lesson of a lifetime.
"If I had this to do again, I would do the right thing and ask the nurse before I do it, to keep out of trouble," Kivi said.
Ferguson was not disciplined over the incident.
Both Kivi and Ferguson decided to withdraw from Caney Creek High School to be home-schooled.
The families received calls of support from around the world after their story was made public.
Interesting that Kivi's girlfriend is voluntarily withdrawing from school as well. My guess is that her parents aren't too happy that their daughter's asthma attack was not taken seriously by the school nurse, and that Kivi was discliplined for (possibly) saving their daughter's life.
Posted by kswygert at October 10, 2003 06:46 PM