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STATE COURT AGREES WITH RUTHERFORD INSTITUTE, REPRIMANDS SCHOOL OFFICIALS FOR EXPELLING STUDENT OVER TOY LASER POINTERColorado Court Finds Board of Education Abused Discretion by Labeling Toy Laser Pointer as Actual Firearm
GREELEY, Colo. -- Responding to a petition by attorneys for The Rutherford Institute, Judge Julie C. Hoskins of the District Court for Weld County has ruled that school officials erred in expelling a 13-year-old boy for handling a toy laser pointer. Institute attorneys filed an appeal in March 2003 in the District Court for Weld County on behalf of 13-year-old Mitch Muller after school officials expelled him from North Valley Middle School for handling a classmate's toy laser pointer during class. School officials claimed that Mitch, who had never been subject to any disciplinary action in school, was in violation of a school policy banning firearm facsimiles, because the toy laser pointer, which had a bright orange tip on the "barrel," resembled a gun. Institute attorneys argued that expelling Mitch for possession of a so-called "firearm facsimile" without the benefit of a public hearing was a violation of his Fourteenth Amendment rights. Although Mitch completed a six-week alternative program in Greeley that allowed him to return to school, Institute attorneys sought to have the expulsion set aside. In ruling that the Board of Education "abused its discretion in finding that the object in question [the toy laser pointer] could be reasonably mistaken for an actual firearm," Hoskins granted the Institute's request that Mitch's expulsion set aside.
"It is our hope that this ruling will send a message to school officials that compassion and common sense need to be restored to the classroom," said John W. Whitehead, president of The Rutherford Institute. "A good student should not be thrown out of school and have his future threatened for a few moments of curiosity with a friend's harmless toy."
On November 19, 2002, Mitch observed a classmate playing with what appeared to be a laser pointer during business class. Mitch asked to see the toy and began playing with it, shining the red dot on the wall in the classroom. Mitch played with the toy for no more than a couple of minutes and returned the toy to his classmate. However, having observed the red dot on the wall, the teacher held all of the students in class until the student produced the toy. Although the toy was shaped like a miniature gun, at no time did Mitch or anyone else believe that the toy was or could be mistaken for a real gun. The next day the school principal began an investigation into the incident and interrogated all three boys. All three boys were subsequently expelled for "possession of a firearm facsimile." Institute attorneys insist that the laser pointer was too small to be mistaken for a weapon and that board members violated Colorado's open meetings laws when they failed to conduct Mitch's appeal hearing in public. Furthermore, Institute attorneys claim that Valley Re-1 School District officials violated Mitch's due process rights by not providing evidence pertinent to his case at his expulsion hearing.
The Rutherford Institute is an international, nonprofit civil liberties organization committed to defending constitutional and human rights.
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