On The Front Lines
The Rutherford Institute Appeals to U.S. Supreme Court on Behalf of Kindergartner Suspended for Make-Believe Game of 'Cops & Robbers'
WASHINGTON --Attorneys for The Rutherford Institute have appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court on behalf of elementary school student A.G. and his parents in their case against the Sayreville Board of Education and the principal of Wilson Elementary School. The lawsuit stems from a playground incident that resulted in four kindergarten boys being suspended from school for three days for playing a make-believe game of "cops and robbers" during recess. While the school district claims to have no official written policy mandating "zero tolerance" of violent behavior or threats, the actions by the Sayreville school officials are consistent with those of many other school districts that have adopted such blanket policies.On March 15, 2000, four kindergarten students at Wilson Elementary School in Sayreville, N.J., engaged in a make-believe game of "cops and robbers" during recess. In their game of pretend, the boys used their fingers as guns, and one of the four boys, A.G., uttered to another playmate, "I have a bazooka and I'm going to shoot you." These words were reported to the teacher by a student who stood nearby. Based on this report, A.G. and the three other students were removed from their classroom and taken to the school office where they were questioned regarding their conduct. Without notice to A.G.'s parents, he, along with the other three boys, was suspended for three days and sent home. Attorneys for The Rutherford Institute filed the original lawsuit in June 2000 in the U.S. District Court for New Jersey, seeking to have the suspension the kindergartner received be expunged from his school record. Institute attorneys charged that the kindergartner's First, Fifth, Eighth and Fourteenth Amendment rights had been violated, as well as a New Jersey law entitling him to a public education. The Institute's brief asks the high court to review the June 2003 decision by the Third Circuit Court of Appeals affirming a lower court ruling that A.G.'s constitutional rights to free speech, procedural due process and equal protection of law were not violated as a result of the school's actions.
"When public school authorities claim first graders playing 'Cops and Robbers' on the playground are engaged in 'threatening' and 'dangerous' activity, one wonders whether it is the children or the adults who can't tell the difference between fantasy and reality," stated John W. Whitehead, president of The Rutherford Institute. "The right to freely express oneself is a fundamental right protected by the First Amendment--whether one is eight or eighty."
The Rutherford Institute is an international, nonprofit civil liberties organization committed to defending constitutional and human rights.
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