The Ypsilanti Courier
A Heritage Newspaper
Weekly Publication
Incidents lead to questions
By Kathleen R. Conat, Special Writer
PUBLISHED: April 12, 2007
(Editor's Note: This is the first in a series of articles examining disciplinary incidents at Ypsilanti High School and the recent resignation of the school's principal.)
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What led to the resignation of Layne Hunt as principal at Ypsilanti High School?
How safe is the flagship school of the Ypsilanti Public School district?
Washtenaw County Sheriff's Department incident reports from Sept. 1, 2006 to March 12 of this year, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, reveal a number of incidents of violence and confrontations at the high school. After further investigation, The Courier has learned of several of these incidents that demonstrated a lack of communication between Hunt and Ypsilanti Schools' Superintendent James Hawkins in an ongoing controversy that stretches back several months.
After reviewing these reports, which number more than 100, more than half were offenses such as assault and battery, gang-related activity and drug possession.
Yet, many of these incidents were not reflected in the monthly disciplinary reports prepared by individual school principals and disseminated to district administrators and trustees of the Board of Education.
"The disciplinary reports from the high school were morally and ethically corrupt," said Board of Education Trustee Andrew Fanta.
"I don't know whether the superintendent was even informed, but these transgressions never were presented to the board for review.
"My feeling is these things were not forwarded up the chain of command to the superintendent," Fanta continued. "I feel terrible about this. This sets a terrible example for our students and sends a bad message to parents. This is a corruption of the educational process."
Three of the offenses involved students bringing weapons into the school. Under Michigan Compiled Laws Sec. 380.1313, school administrators are required to bring students found in the possession of weapons before the district Board of Education for expulsion, as well as report such students to law enforcement officers.
The first incident at the high school that involved a dangerous weapon during this school year occurred on Sept. 29, 2006.
Washtenaw County Sheriff's Deputy Keith Flores, the school liaison officer, received numerous reports of items stolen from the men's locker room during the first class hour of the day.
After viewing camera evidence showing a high school student entering the locker room three times during that class period and leaving each time with articles that had later been reported missing, Flores and Building Assistant Glen Johnson went to the student's locker, where they located the missing items.
While questioning the suspect after he had been advised of his rights under the Miranda ruling, Flores searched the suspect's backpack and found a knife that, under questioning, the suspect said belonged to his brother.
This weapon, as seen in evidentiary photographs that accompanied the report, measures 11 inches from handle to tip. The handle is designed for fingers to be inserted into it, and the outer edge of the handle is studded with nine sharply pointed spikes.
The interview of the suspect took place in the office and in the presence of Assistant Principal Jacquilyn Dudley. According to Hawkins, who was reached while on spring break vacation, this suspect was a special education student.
"Because of his special status," Hawkins said, "the procedure is different. The principal is supposed to turn in the paperwork to me so I can begin the expulsion process. But, instead of the issue proceeding directly to the board, the student is brought before a hearing to determine if the violation is a manifestation of his (or her) disorder. If the violation is found to be such a manifestation, an alternate disposition of the case is found.
"In this instance, though, I was never apprised of the violation and never started the expulsion process. I now know the violation was determined to be a manifestation of the student's disability and (the student) was given a 45-day placement in the Center for Occupational and Personal Education program. Still, I should have been notified."
On Oct. 6, 2006, a large pocket knife was turned over to Flores by a high school staff member. Flores met with the student and his mother in the presence of Assistant Principal Kim Ferrell.
According to Flores' report, the student said he had not realized the knife was in his pocket until the second class hour when he was putting a pencil into his pocket. He pulled the knife out to look at it in the cafeteria at lunch, although several statements conflicted with each other as to the reason why he removed it from his pocket.
The knife, as seen in the evidentiary photographs measures almost eight inches in length when opened.
The student was turned over to his mother.
When Hawkins was contacted and asked about this occurrence, he said he had never been notified of it by Hunt and could not comment on what, if any consequence the student received.
The third offense involving a weapon at the high school occurred at the beginning of the winter semester. In a report dated Feb. 5 of this year, after he had finished interviewing witnesses, Flores outlined the occurrence in his report.
The report stated that on Jan. 31, a male high school student went to Flores' office to report an incident that had occurred the previous afternoon. The young man said he had been followed onto his bus by a female student of his acquaintance who was angry with him and who swung her fist at him.
When the bus driver called the man to the front of the bus to ask him what was going on, the girl exited the bus. She stood outside the bus and pulled a knife out of her purse, taunting the youth to get off the bus and telling him she was going to stab him.
This incident was witnessed by a third student, who confirmed the suspect had pulled out a knife, and who stated he believed she had been serious about her threats.
Flores, aided by Johnson and Building assistant Dan Brown, began a search of the school when it was determined the suspect was not in her assigned class. According to Flores' report, she was found and taken to the office of Interim Assistant Principal Shreece Lewis, who was filling in for Dudley. There, Lewis located the knife in the suspect's purse and the suspect acknowledged that she "always carried a knife."
At that point, Lewis and Flores escorted the suspect to the principal's office, where they were met by social worker Gwen McGee and Kayla Naylor of the student support staff. Flores' report states he left the suspect in that office in order to interview the victim again. The report further states that Hunt met with the suspect's parents for over an hour that day.
The knife in this incident, as seen in evidentiary photographs, measures approximately nine inches from handle to tip, with a serrated blade and is of the type generally called a "steak knife."
Because the knife had been used to threaten a fellow student, the suspect was accused of felonious assault, as well as carrying a concealed weapon, and the case was turned over to the Washtenaw County Prosecuting Attorney for review.
Yet, in the disciplinary report presented to the school board at its March 7 meeting, no assault of such a serious nature is listed, nor any weapons violation listed.
"I was told the student was a gross behavioral problem; a long-term troublemaker," Hawkins said. "I was never given any information about a weapon. If I had been, I would have started the expulsion process.
"I was informed that the girl's mother intended to send her south, to one of the southern states, and she would be leaving the district. Later, I was contacted by the superintendent at Willow Run, who told me she had applied to that district and he needed a letter releasing her from Ypsilanti. I sent a short letter, releasing her."
Hawkins said it was not until he later learned of a police report on the incident that he began to look into past incidents at the school and learned others also had not been reported.
"That's when I started asking questions," he said.
When Fanta was asked about these three violations of the weapons policies of the district and the state law, he stated they had never been brought before the board for an expulsion hearing.
"While I try to give the benefit of the doubt to everyone who comes before us, the fact remains we must be notified of such violations. That is the state law," he said.
On Feb. 22, Superintendent Hawkins wrote a letter to Ron Ciranna, superintendent of the Willow Run Community Schools, releasing the student from the Ypsilanti Public School District for the remainder of the 2006 to 2007 school year.
When told about the release letter, which also is in violation of district policy, Fanta stated, "The question I ask myself is 'What potential liability do I have if that child goes to another district and continues that sort of behavior?' My other concern is why this was not brought before the board."
Fanta said he is determined to look into these matters to find out what went wrong and how the system can be corrected.
"Students have to know the expectations and processes are uniform," Fanta said. "They and their parents have to know everyone will be treated with the same degree of fairness. Without this, it corrupts the whole thing."
Hunt could not be reached, as of press time, at the home number listed on his resume.
Kathleen Conat is a longtime Ypsilanti resident and freelance writer for The Courier. She can be reached through editor@ypsilanticourier.com.
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