HOLT - A Holt High School student who brought a small knife to his prom now must wait until the end of the month to hear if he will be allowed to return to school for his senior year.
“I was hoping for this to be over,” said Jeremy Hix, 17.
Hix was kicked out of his junior prom May 19 and suspended from school for wearing traditional Scottish bagpiper’s attire, which included a “sgian dubh” - a 3 1/2 inch ceremonial knife tucked into the right sock.
Under Michigan’s zero-tolerance laws, Hix could be expelled from public schools for 150 school days. School board members were scheduled to decide the teenager’s fate at a meeting Wednesday night.
But Frank Fleischmann, Hix’s lawyer, said the board’s hearings officer, who will judge the case, gave a memorandum to members explaining “zero tolerance” and how it should be applied.
And that means the board is not impartial to Hix’s case, he said.
“There is a sense of impropriety and we had no course of agenda but to postpone the hearing,” Fleischmann said in a statement following the meeting.
Board members unanimously voted to postpone the hearing until July 24. The decision came after more than 100 Holt residents, parents and teachers attended to express their opinions.
Bill Savage, who taught Hix’s social studies class, said his 3.75 grade-point average, among other attributes, shows Hix is a model student and wouldn’t intend to harm anyone.
“This is not the type of student this statute seems to be aimed at,” Savage said.
And Holt resident Paul Midthun, whose son was expelled for similar reasons, said expulsion would hurt the situation more than help it.
“By expelling a student, you’re ruining a student,” he said. “I’ve seen what has happened to my son the past two years, and it is not a pretty sight.”
But some at Wednesday’s meeting felt Hix should be punished, regardless of his intent.
“Graciously accept the consequences of your decision and move along,” Hix was told by one Holt woman who wouldn’t give her name.
There are exceptions to the zero-tolerance laws, and Hix’s lawyer plans to use them. If a student can prove he or she was unaware the instrument was considered a dangerous weapon and didn’t intend to use the instrument as a weapon, he or she can avoid expulsion.
It is something that must be considered when applying the law, said Kelly Rossman-McKinney, a spokeswoman for Fleischmann.
“The school board not only has the opportunity, but the responsibility and authority to follow the law, which includes the exceptions,” she said.
In a statement to the media, Hix said he did not feel he committed a crime by including his sgian dubh with his uniform.
“I feel as though my individual right to wear my culture has been violated,” he said.
He added he continues to hope he’ll be able to graduate from Holt High School so he can graduate with his twin sister.
And Lansing resident Dj Krogol, Hix’s bagpipe instructor for the past two years, said there’s no reason why Hix should be denied such an opportunity.
“When you put on a tuxedo, you’re not dressed without your cummerbund. This is the same thing,” he said, while dressed in full Scottish military uniform.
Krogol, who has played the bagpipes for 45 years, said he was even allowed to wear his sgian dubh when he played for former President Gerald Ford during the dedication of the MSU-Detroit College of Law Building in 1998.
“Even the Secret Service considers this to be ornamental jewelry,” said Krogol, standing near a group of bagpipers shortly after they performed “Amazing Grace” outside the building.
Sheena Harrison can be reached at harri188@msu.edu.
