Gwinnett rethinks youth's suspension over knife in backpack

By David Ibata

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

A Gwinnett County couple says it’s unfair their 13-year-old child faces an in-school suspension after he voluntarily turned in a penknife he found, and school officials may agree, Channel 2 Action News reports.

The incident leading to the disciplinary action happened Thursday morning at Lanier Middle School at 6482 Suwanee Dam Road near Buford.

Jack Persyn discovered a pocket knife in the military-style backpack his aunt had bought second-hand at a yard sale and had given to him for Christmas. The teen reported the knife and turned it in to his teacher.

But even though the 7th grader admitted having the knife, and his parents contend it wasn’t his fault it ended up at school, the boy was given a four-day in-school suspension for violating the Gwinnett school district’s policy on weapons.

Since then, though, school officials have reduced Jack's suspension to two days and say they're re-thinking their disciplinary policy.

Gwinnett schools spokesman Jorge Quintana told Channel 2, “We try to do what is best for the school overall with what is best for the child.”

“We are very happy about that,” the boy’s father, Bill Persyn, said of the reduced punishment in an interview with Channel 2. “He is a very good child. We’ve never had a discipline problem with him; he is in Boy Scouts, he is very good natured.”

Jack’s mother Angie Persyn said that when she first learned about the incident and her son’s suspension, “I was totally perplexed.”

Bill Persyn said he told his son, “Jack, you did the right thing. What else could you have done?”

Jack’s parents now hope school officials will expunge their son’s record of the incident.

At one time, Gwinnett’s disciplinary policy called for an automatic 10-day, out-of-school suspension for a child found with a weapon in school, Quintana said. The current policy calls for an in- or out-of-school suspension of four to nine days.

In an email to AJC education blogger Maureen Downey, Quintana said, "Gwinnett County Public Schools does not have a zero-tolerance policy. We look at situations individually and take appropriate disciplinary action.

"While we are not at liberty to confirm or discuss the discipline this young man faces, we know our administrators followed procedures as stated in the Student Conduct Code," Quintana said.

Severe and automatic discipline arose from the so-called zero tolerance movement of 1980s, when school officials were focusing on federal anti-drug and anti-weapons policies. But the policies in practice grew to cover other infractions.

Over the years, Georgia students have been suspended under zero tolerance for kissing a girl on the forehead, wearing a studded belt, bringing a French teacher a gift-wrapped bottle of wine and carrying a Tweety Bird wallet with a chain on it.

One incident, in October 2009, led to state legislation restricting such policies.

A 14-year-old middle school student in Morgan County inadvertently brought a fishing knife with a 2 ½-inch blade to school. He ended up being arrested, expelled, convicted of a felony and sent to an alternative school – even though he had voluntarily turned the knife in to a school principal.

In response, state Sen. Emanuel Jones (D-Decatur) sponsored legislation that requires judges to hold a hearing before a student can be taken into custody, and prohibits charging a student as a designated felon. The action would be classified as a delinquent act unless the weapon was used in an assault or if it was a gun. Gov. Sonny Perdue signed the bill into law in May 2010.

-- Staff writer Ernie Suggs contributed to this article.