Incredulous over a five-day suspension for a high school student who was found to have three spent shell casings in his backpack, Florida Carry Inc. is taking the school district to court.
According to the lawsuit, filed against the Hillsborough County School Board in the 13th Judicial Circuit for Hillsborough County, Florida, the incident occurred at Hillsborough Public Schools on November 21. The lawsuit states that an anonymous person reported through the FortifyFL app that the plaintiff, identified only as J.S. due to privacy concerns, might be in possession of a prohibited item.
The principal then called the student’s father and told him the prohibited item might “represent a threat to school safety and security.” Both of J.S.’s quickly went to the school to get more information on the matter.
“Upon the parents’ arrival, the parents learned that school officials, along with the school resource officer, a Deputy employed by the Hillsborough County Sheriff, searched J.S.’s backpack and conducted a pat down of J.S.,” the complaint states. “The search revealed three expended metallic casings contained in a Ziploc bag, along with some change.”
According to the complaint, the casings were from a recent target-shooting excursion with the boy’s parents.
“The expended casings did not contain any powder, projectile, shot, bullets, wading or live primer,” the lawsuit continued. “The Deputy stated that there was no criminal conduct by J.S.’s possession of empty, expended shell casings.”
Still, the principal wasn’t content to let the incident go. She told the parents to take the student home and that she would contact SBHC to see what actions would be taken since the items were shell casings, not live ammunition. The principal also advised the parents that she would call them with the details of any punishment that might be given.
Later that afternoon, the principal called the student’s parents and told them their child was going to be suspended.
“During the phone call the Principal told S.W. (the student’s father) that he was lucky the Principal ‘went to bat for him,’” the lawsuit said. “The Principal stated that J.S. could have been expelled from school. The Principal stated that because she ‘went to bat for’ J.S., J.S. was being punished with a five-day suspension.”
Since the school’s Thanksgiving break was coming soon, the last three days of the suspension would have been over the break. Still, the suspension didn’t seem fair to the family.
After all, as the lawsuit stated: “No allegation was made that J.S. had threatened anyone. No allegation was made that J.S. intended to use the expended casing to cause harm to anyone. No allegation was made that J.S. intended to use the expended casing as a weapon.”
According to the lawsuit, school officials committed a host of legal errors including defining an individual ammunition component as “ammunition,” defining or treating ammunition as a “weapon” and defining or treating ammunition components as a “weapon.” The lawsuit also accused the school board of creating a policy prohibiting the possession of “ammunition” on school property or in a school safety zone, a policy prohibiting the possession of an ammunition component on school property, a policy of disciplining students for lawful possession of an ammunition component on school property and a policy of disciplining students for possessing ammunition on school property.
In the end, the plaintiffs requested an injunction against SBHC prohibiting the enforcement of its illegal policies and requiring the repeal of the same. The student, J.S., further requested that SBHC be enjoined from enforcing or making any record of his suspension and requiring SBHC to provide J.S. a reasonable opportunity to complete all missed assignments course work, and examinations caused by the illegal suspension, and requiring SBHC to remove and record that J.S. missed school attendance as a result of the illegal suspension.
Lastly, plaintiffs requested an award of damages, costs, attorney’s fees and all other relief deemed just and equitable by the court.
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