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JEFFREY J. AND SHEILA A. SADMAN,
individually and on behalf of their son, ACE SADMAN,
Petitioners, Respondents, and Cross-Appellants,
v.
COPPER COUNTY HIGH SCHOOL BOARD OF EDUCATION,
Darla D. Doctor, C.P. Accountant, L.C. Psychologist, "Bud" Average,
and Jane Q. Public, Individually and as Members of the Copper County
High School Board of Education,
Respondents, Appellants, and Cross-Respondents.
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FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND:
On September 12, 1997, despondent over his recent breakup with his longtime girlfriend Kelsey, Copper County High School junior Ace Sadman took his father's unloaded .357 magnum pistol to school and placed it in his locker. He showed it to Kelsey and told her that he would shoot himself if she did not come back to him. Kelsey turned him in to the vice-principal. Although the vice-principal found the gun in Ace's locker, Ace had no bullets for the gun on his person, in his locker, or in his car in the school parking lot.
Since 1995, Copper County High School has had the following policy:
Any student who brings onto Copper County High School property any dangerous weapon is subject to discipline, which discipline may include, after a hearing, expulsion from school. Nothing in this policy prevents the School District from providing educational services for such a student in an alternative setting.
Pursuant to the above policy, the Copper County High School Board of Education held a hearing before voting, by a three-to-two margin, to expell Ace from school for the remainder of the school year.
Other neighboring school districts rejected Ace's parents' requests that he be allowed to attend school there, because he did not meet their residency requirements. In October, Ace's parents, devastated at the prospect that he will be forced to wait until next year to do his junior year, filed this petition for a writ of mandamus (a lawsuit to force the performance of an act that the law specifically requires), with the District Court for the Twenty-Fifth Judicial District, Copper County. The Sadmans asked the court to require the School Board to let Ace back into school on the basis that he is being deprived of his constitutional right to equality of educational opportunity. They also argued that the unloaded .357 magnum pistol was not a "dangerous weapon" within the meaning of the school policy because, unloaded, it was not dangerous.
The School Board counterclaimed that it is not their responsibility to provide a public education to a student who is unable to meet their most basic behavioral requirements. Pointing out that they are required under Montana statute, § 20-5-202, MCA, to have a policy for expelling a student who brings a firearm to school, and that possessing a weapon in a school is a crime under § 45-8-361, MCA, the School Board also argued that a .357 magnum pistol is exactly the sort of "dangerous weapon" which does not belong in a school setting.
Of course, the legal process takes time. Ace spent most of the next several months sitting in his parents' basement playing Nintendo.
In December, the District Court ruled that, although the .357 magnum pistol qualified as a "dangerous weapon" under the School Board's policy, Ace's expulsion from school violated his right to equal educational opportunity. The court issued a writ of mandamus requiring the School Board to readmit Ace to Copper County High School. However, imposition of the writ of mandamus has been stayed while the School Board appeals the granting of the writ and Ace's parents cross-appeal on the "dangerous weapon" issue. Meanwhile, Ace is still playing a lot of Nintendo and missing his junior year of high school.
ISSUES:
1. Did the court err in ruling that the School Board's expulsion of Ace from school for the remainder of the school year violated his right to equality of educational opportunity under the Montana Constitution?
2. Did the District Court err in ruling that the unloaded .357 magnum pistol which Ace took to school was a "dangerous weapon" within the meaning of the school policy?
CASES AND RELATED MATERIALS:
Issue 1
Article 10, Section 1, Montana Constitution
State, ex rel., Bartmess v. Board of Trustees, 223 Mont. 269, 726 P.2d 801 (1986)
Kaptein v. Conrad School Dist., ___ Mont. ___, 931 P.2d 1311 (1997)
Becky v. Butte-Silver Bow Sch. Dist., 274 Mont. 131, 906 P.2d 193 (1995)(on writs of mandamus in general)
Cathe A. v. Doddridge County Bd. of Educ., 490 S.E.2d 340 (W.Va. 1997)
Phillip Leon M. v. Bd. of Educ., 484 S.E.2d 909 (W.Va. 1996)
D.B. v. Clarke County Bd. of Educ., 469 S.E.2d 438 (Ga.App. 1996)
Issue 2
the School Board's "dangerous weapon" policy (as set forth above)
State v. Wilson, ___ Mont. ___, 936 P.2d 316 (1997)
State v. Mummey, 264 Mont. 272, 871 P.2d 868 (1994)
State v. Evans, 247 Mont. 218, 806 P.2d 512 (1991)
Section 20-5-202, MCA
18 U.S.C. § 921
Section 45-8-361, MCA