Safety should be paramount for school administrators these days, but like anything else, they need to use discretion and common sense in most cases.
The case-in-point is Jeremy Hix, who just finished his junior year at Holt High School. Dressed in traditional Scottish garb, complete with kilt and hat, Hix attended his high school prom with a small knife attached to his sock.
The knife was 3 1/2 inches with a ram’s horn handle and was part of his outfit. A chaperone at the dance noticed it and Hix was forced to miss the rest of not only the prom, but his classes for the remainder of the year.
The Holt school board meets today to determine Hix’s fate. Under the guidelines of Michigan’s zero-tolerance law, he may be suspended for 180 days.
Fortunately, the law has a provision that the student may not be expelled if the weapon he or she brought to school was not meant to harm or be delivered to another person.
This exception could not be better tailored to Hix’s situation. It is glaringly apparent the knife was not meant to do any harm.
“Prior to the chaperone asking him to hand him the knife, he never removed it from his sock,” Hix’s attorney, Frank Fleischmann, told The State News.
So what’s the big deal? Fleischmann couldn’t say.
“The big deal is the possession law,” Holt Public Schools Superintendant Tom Davis told The State News.
“You have to take everything into account,” he said. “There is never any way of knowing what the intent of the young person is.”
Davis said the law does not require the school board to consider the exception of intent.
Hix is a smart kid with good grades and lofty goals, but he should have thought about bringing the knife ahead of time.
Bringing a knife to school, no matter what the occasion, should be considered seriously given the gravity of the zero-tolerance law. Under the law, which prohibits blades longer than 3 inches, it was appropriate to confiscate the weapon, but the reaction was too severe.
Hix slipped up, but his innocent mistake may have some harsh consequences. An expulsion certainly won’t help his chances at his prospective universities.
Luckily, community support has been outstanding. Very few people disagree with Hix’s position. At today’s hearing, Hix’s friends, his mother and his bagpipe instructor will testify for him.
It’s unfortunate the law doesn’t leave any room for discretion. If Hix is expelled, there is no other punishment besides a 180-day expulsion. The school board would not have the choice to lessen the sentence.
If Hix were expelled, he would be forced to finish his senior year at a private school, which is a great expense for a thoughtless faux pas.
Holt’s commitment to school safety is admirable. Hopefully, this incident will make students in Holt and other high schools think twice before bringing anything that could be considered a weapon to school.
If all goes well, today’s testimony will convince Holt’s school board no harm was intended and Hix will be allowed to finish his senior year at his hometown high school.
