thedrifter
02-12-09, 07:10 AM
School suspends Marine drill team commander
By P. Solomon Banda - The Associated Press
Posted : Thursday Feb 12, 2009 5:07:55 EST
AURORA, Colo. — A Douglas County Young Marines drill team commander has been suspended from high school for having the team’s mock rifles in her SUV and faces a hearing Thursday on whether she should be expelled.
Marie Morrow, 17, was suspended for 10 days from Cherokee Trail High School in the Denver suburb of Aurora on Feb. 5. Her attorney, David Lane, said her hearing originally had been set for Feb. 20 but was moved up because of a scheduling conflict.
Morrow is a senior in advanced placement classes with a 3.5 grade point average and hopes to attend the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy, one of five military service academies. She’s a member of the Young Marines, a youth leadership and life skills program for students, and has applied for the New Mexico Military Institute.
The mock rifles were to be used for the group’s after-school drill team practice at a private high school in preparation for a national drill team competition at the Air Force Academy in April.
Cherry Creek School District spokeswoman Tustin Amole said state law gives school administrators no choice but to expel Morrow.
But she said administrators do have some say over the length of the expulsion, which can range from a day to a year. An independent hearing officer will make a recommendation to district Superintendent Mary Chesley, who Amole said was not available for interviews.
The case sparked a public outcry over “zero tolerance” laws from people who say they give school administrators too little discretion.
One of the three mock rifles in Morrow’s vehicle was a replica of a brown, 45-inch 1903 Springfield rifle that was the main U.S. military weapon in World War I and is still used for military ceremonies.
“I know other schools use them, and we actually go to a high school to practice,” Morrow told The Associated Press by telephone. “I thought we’d just throw them in the back and not think anything of it.”
The group’s drill team also uses mock rifles as part of a color guard — soldiers who carry the American flag during public events — at schools in Douglas County and in parades, said the group’s adult commander Chris Proctor.
Cherokee Trail security and the school’s resource police officer responded to a report from other students about weapons in a car and determined the rifles were props. They were returned to Morrow after school.
State law calls for expelling students who arrive at school with a dangerous weapon, which includes a firearm or a “firearm facsimile that could reasonably be mistaken for an actual firearm.”
“I don’t think that they were props was obvious to the kids who saw them sitting in the back seat of the car,” Amole said. “The kids saw them, and they did exactly what we asked them to do, and that is they reported them to school officials.”
The Young Marines, started by the U.S. Marine Corps in 1959, is now a youth group with 3,000 adult volunteers serving 12,000 students in 46 states.
“Judgment comes into play,” said Trisha Sargent, a former principal and associate university professor who is mentoring Morrow. “That’s why we pay administrators to follow the rules, the policy, with the very best judgment you possibly can.”
Doug Pennington of the Washington-based Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence weighed in:
“People’s energy should be focused on the guns that kill people and try to work some reasonable compromise out with the student, if possible,” he said.
Ellie
By P. Solomon Banda - The Associated Press
Posted : Thursday Feb 12, 2009 5:07:55 EST
AURORA, Colo. — A Douglas County Young Marines drill team commander has been suspended from high school for having the team’s mock rifles in her SUV and faces a hearing Thursday on whether she should be expelled.
Marie Morrow, 17, was suspended for 10 days from Cherokee Trail High School in the Denver suburb of Aurora on Feb. 5. Her attorney, David Lane, said her hearing originally had been set for Feb. 20 but was moved up because of a scheduling conflict.
Morrow is a senior in advanced placement classes with a 3.5 grade point average and hopes to attend the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy, one of five military service academies. She’s a member of the Young Marines, a youth leadership and life skills program for students, and has applied for the New Mexico Military Institute.
The mock rifles were to be used for the group’s after-school drill team practice at a private high school in preparation for a national drill team competition at the Air Force Academy in April.
Cherry Creek School District spokeswoman Tustin Amole said state law gives school administrators no choice but to expel Morrow.
But she said administrators do have some say over the length of the expulsion, which can range from a day to a year. An independent hearing officer will make a recommendation to district Superintendent Mary Chesley, who Amole said was not available for interviews.
The case sparked a public outcry over “zero tolerance” laws from people who say they give school administrators too little discretion.
One of the three mock rifles in Morrow’s vehicle was a replica of a brown, 45-inch 1903 Springfield rifle that was the main U.S. military weapon in World War I and is still used for military ceremonies.
“I know other schools use them, and we actually go to a high school to practice,” Morrow told The Associated Press by telephone. “I thought we’d just throw them in the back and not think anything of it.”
The group’s drill team also uses mock rifles as part of a color guard — soldiers who carry the American flag during public events — at schools in Douglas County and in parades, said the group’s adult commander Chris Proctor.
Cherokee Trail security and the school’s resource police officer responded to a report from other students about weapons in a car and determined the rifles were props. They were returned to Morrow after school.
State law calls for expelling students who arrive at school with a dangerous weapon, which includes a firearm or a “firearm facsimile that could reasonably be mistaken for an actual firearm.”
“I don’t think that they were props was obvious to the kids who saw them sitting in the back seat of the car,” Amole said. “The kids saw them, and they did exactly what we asked them to do, and that is they reported them to school officials.”
The Young Marines, started by the U.S. Marine Corps in 1959, is now a youth group with 3,000 adult volunteers serving 12,000 students in 46 states.
“Judgment comes into play,” said Trisha Sargent, a former principal and associate university professor who is mentoring Morrow. “That’s why we pay administrators to follow the rules, the policy, with the very best judgment you possibly can.”
Doug Pennington of the Washington-based Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence weighed in:
“People’s energy should be focused on the guns that kill people and try to work some reasonable compromise out with the student, if possible,” he said.
Ellie