Education
Student Suspended For Doing The Right Thing
- Kevin Davies, a 7th grader, was suspended for 30 days for turning in a knife he found in his backpack.
- The school tried to give him a full year suspension but dropped it down.
- They also called Kevin's locally run football team to try and get him kicked off of that as well, the Coldwater Rocket Football program refused.
Coldwater, Michigan doesn't believe in rewarding its students. In fact, they believe in punishing them. Kevin Davies, a 7th grader in Branch County, found a pocket knife in his backpack. Kevin's mother claimed she purchased it at Goodwill and never searched the bag before she bought it. So when Kevin found the knife in his bag he brought it to a counselor. What was his reward for doing the right thing? He was suspended.
Kevin's mother Denise Davies said, “He was turning it over like he was supposed to, and you are punishing him for doing what's right. He pulled it out and his counselor was standing there, and he says can I call my mom? And she's like why do you need to call your mom. He says well, I found this, this isn't mine.”
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The school rules say that this type of an incident results in an automatic year of suspension. Yet, they dropped it down to 30 school days. The school, however, didn't stop there. The consequences of doing the right thing didn't stay within the halls of the school, they spilled out onto the football field. That's right. The school also wanted to keep Kevin off the football team because of the incident.
Denise said, “The school told me he could not go on their property, he could not play; he can't ride the bus with his team because it's a Coldwater bus.”
Coldwater Rocket Football is a locally run football program that has no ties to the school district. They claimed that the school district called the Rocket Football program to get them to kick Kevin off of their team. They, of course, refused.
Denise said, “I understand the violence stuff that's going on in schools, I said but when you get some boys that are honest and turns it in–he wasn't trying to hide it–and then he's getting punished for it.”
Coldwater Community Schools does not disclose information regarding the discipline of individual students under any circumstance. However, discipline procedures are in our student handbook and are consistent with Coldwater Community Schools Board of Education policies which comply with the current laws of the State of Michigan regarding student discipline.
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