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.
Hopefully J.S. will stick it to S B H C good and hard and may they laugh all the way to the bank.
I teach around 200 shooters a year in certain youth programs ages 11-18. The newbies all want to take home a souvenir fired case. Our organization policy is souvenirs only go home with adult leaders because we don’t wont them ending up at school or shorting out mom’s dryer.
Where are you at? I’m near West Plains, MO
“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.”
With ‘friends like that, who needs enemies?
Hardly surprising, these are the same folks who suspended a child because the kid chewed a toaster pastry into the ‘shape’ of a handgun.
I hope that kid gets a payout big enough to pay for a quality rifle or pistol of his own…
Or a quality college.
now that’s an oxymoron if I’ve ever heard one.
Shell casings will get you arrested and charged in D.C. I recall that a divorcing attorney had his home searched and he arrested because there was an empty casing that was a trophy from a recent hunt. At least at that point in time, D.C. defined “ammunition” as loaded ammunition “or any of its components.” The police also seized some legally possessed black powder firearms. Can’t win for losing.
So, a surviving family member receiving an expended rifle cartridge from a 21-gun salute is an offender? I have a chunk or lead or some brass in a scrap pile. Does that cross a legal line under the components theory, too?
I don’t know what to tell you people.
Government schools suck.
Every year the costs go up and the grades go down. Sexual abuse of kids by school staff is 100 times higher than that of priests. 70% of schools in a given year report drug use or possession. 67% report violent crime occurrences.
If you send your kid to a government school you hate your kid.
My kids came out mostly ok, but I fear for my future grandchildren.
i personally have no kids, but what I have seen come out of my sisters leaves me both hopeful and seriously concerned, with different kids from different sisters…
Are from Missouri?
Barley ran into a similar situation during a traffic stop in NJ. He demonstrated that the casings were actually musical instruments by placing one against his lower lip and blowing downward into it. The Trooper laughed and let Barley go with a warning.
Geeze, he really lucky the cop had a sense of humor.
Reminds me of times I’ve been stopped while out bike riding at night. One time the cop who stopped me asked if I had any weapons on me, and when I mentioned I also had a Leatherman tool, but by the time I got it out and un-folded he would be well into his second magazine, he actually laughed.
The other time, the cop asked me what I was doing wearing gloves, and when I told him it was to making falling off a lot less painful, he copped an attitude. Me, not being very smart, smarted back at him “Great, an attitude.”
Fortunately for me, he didn’t escalate it, and I was on my way after he determined by my ID I wasn’t wanted. I replied to him, “All you would have to do is ask any woman I have dated could have verified that”, I was on my way.
I sure wish the good Lord would have made me a little smarter, It would have made life a lot easier… 😉
why do you get pulled over for bicycling?
“requiring SBHC to provide J.S. a reasonable opportunity to complete all missed assignments course work, and examinations caused by the illegal suspension”
The heck with that, at a minimum: they should just give the kid 100% passing grades for any missed assignments, ensure he passes the grade, and make the school administrators associated with this egregious conduct, each and every one of them, issue a very public acknowledgement statement of their wrong doing and give a written and publicly read by them personally apology acceptable to their victim. And make these school administrators personally responsible for paying the costs of the legal battle by reimbursing the public tax dollars used to defend them by paycheck garnishment and paying the legal costs of the victim.
There needs to be more punishment for this kind of conduct by schools. Simply them going to court, at tax payer expense, and loosing (if they lose) is not enough.
most definitely, liberal scum have been getting away with harassing innocent honest people too long, time to make them pay, ( hit them in the wallet, they don’t seem to understand anything else), then MAYBE they will finally wake up
If I discovered empty shell casings on a student in my public high school classroom, the student and I would have a conversation about:
– Did you have a good time hunting or target shooting?
– Do you know what happens to brass on the micro-crystalline grain level when it is fired, resized, sometimes annealed, sometimes belled, and sometimes crimped? It’s really cool, let me tell you what happens… then we would geek out together on the amazing material properties of brass.
Hopefully, this would enhance my positive connection with that student. These educational and appropriate connections are statistically among the best means of preventing school shootings… or so I’m told by my admin.
My school is a place I want my own kids to attend… and they do 🙂
Having spent shell casings in your school backpack is no more problematic than having an empty chef’s knife sheath in your school backpack.
The school district was/is totally in the wrong on this case.
Or soda can pull tabs.
This is Florida. Their preemption laws SHOULD attach personal liability to the principal and school board.
Every person involved should be FINED, FIRED and BANNED from ever influencing students again.
Every Gov. entity makes this $#!+ up as they go. From the TSA to your local school board. Little Jhonny brings an empty case to school OMG the sky is falling. Little Jhonny is 6’2″, with a 5 o’clock shadow, decides it’s a girl so it can shower in the girls locker-room well that’s A-okay. It is time to remind these SOBs that they are the servants of the people NOT their lord and master.
If I were the school/defendants I would offer to settle out of court and make the absurd matter go away ASAP.
I had a similar situation to this years ago. I ordered a box of 9 mm range brass, about 10k pieces. The problem was that it needed to be delivered to a commercial address. I had it delivered to my workplace. One of the guys up front brought it back and watched as I opened it. When he saw what was inside, he said he did not care, but the company had a strict no firearms rule. I informed him this was neither a firearm or ammunition. i also stated you could crush it a press or throw them in a fire and nothing would happen, this is nothing more than scrap metal. Never heard another word.
Oh geesh, and back in the day to get out of skool we’d call in a bomb threat.
Three shells equal 5 days at the target range.
Feed me more.
.
Is the principal’s name Karen perhaps?
I once got through TSA with a spent casing in my jacket from a previous range trip. Didn’t get stopped [the TSA screener poked at my jacket and shrugged their shoulders], but since my flight was going overseas, there was no way I was going to keep it on my person…
That is just plain dumb. People lacking common sense should be only allowed to be cashiers at Wal-Mart.
A couple of years back someone dropped an EXPENDED 9mm case at a junior/community College. They LOCKED the school down.
What presents the greater threat. A couple of spent shell casings or a couple of spent soda bottles.
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