Judge grants district’s plea to ban boy

Citing “significant interest in maintaining school safety,” a federal judge has granted the Vilonia School District’s request to keep a 15-year-old student who is considered a possible safety risk to students and staff members from immediately returning to the district’s Freshman Academy for ninth-graders.

In a move attorneys believe is unprecedented in Arkansas, but that has occurred in a few other states, the district sued the boys’ parents March 27 to halt a “stay-put” provision in federal law that requires suspended special education students to return to their most-recent placement — in this case, a regular classroom — after 10 days of suspension, at least until a final administrative decision on placement can be made.

The provision would have required the school to readmit the boy despite pictures he recently posted of himself holding a gun, and homicidal and suicidal remarks he allegedly made to others, until an administrative decision expected later this month.

The district said that after looking into a March 1 social media posting that was reported to Principal Ronnie Simmons by another student’s parents, school officials uncovered other photos on the boy’s phone, which he willingly showed them, and learned of conversations he’d had with other students and a teaching intern. In those conversations, the officials said, he talked about shooting to kill and not injure and reportedly said he wanted to kill someone and spend the rest of his life in prison.

The boy’s parents said he was just citing rap lyrics and using a method taught in a special-education class to control his thoughts, and that he would never harm anyone. They conceded he had recently been treated for suicidal thoughts but said his medication was adjusted and he was improving.

The parents also said the boy’s remarks were a manifestation of his disability, which under federal law needs to be taken into consideration.

The law says that if there was a direct and substantial relationship between the child’s disability and the actions that led to the disciplinary actions, as was determined in the boy’s case, the child must stay in the same educational environment, as opposed to being schooled in a day treatment center or being homebound.