Expulsion

The Pennsauken Township Board of Education last night approved an amendment to its policy on high school discipline that provides for possible expulsion if a student is suspended more than three times during the school year. School Superintendent Howard Phifer will review the records of a student facing a fourth suspension and recommend to the board whether the student should be expelled. "Only the board can expel a student. It is not the privilege of school personnel," said board President Robert C. Cornforth.

A little over a year ago, the Philadelphia School District broke a 23-year- old ban and expelled a middle school student for allegedly selling cocaine on school grounds. Now, 13 months later, 15 students have been permanently expelled, and there are "another half-dozen in the pipeline," said Harry S. Tischler, assistant general counsel for the district. The number of students expelled thus far in Philadelphia, with 192,000 students, is small compared to, say, the Los Angeles School District, where almost 700 of the 600,000 students were expelled last year.

City and state education officials yesterday defended the Philadelphia School District's limited expulsion of students who bring weapons to schools, dismissing a complaint from a school-safety expert as a misreading of federal law. Jack Stollsteimer, the state's safe-schools advocate, alleged in a four-page memo that the district had routinely violated the federal Gun-Free Schools Act, which mandates a year's expulsion for students caught with firearms...

A Philadelphia charter school has been sued over the expulsion of a kindergartner accused of inappropriately touching another girl. It is the second time First Philadelphia Charter School for Literacy, at 4300 Tacony St. in the Frankford section, has been taken to court for expelling a kindergartner. In May, a Common Pleas Court judge overturned the expulsion of a boy who had touched his teacher's legs, ruling that the school misconstrued why the boy had touched his teacher.

A judge has overturned a kindergartner's expulsion from a Philadelphia charter school for touching his teacher's thighs after she complained that her legs hurt. The 6-year-old, who had three earlier suspensions, was merely trying to comfort his teacher, the judge concluded. "I want to make them feel better," the boy told his teacher, according to a May 23 ruling by Common Pleas Judge Paul Panepinto, first reported on by The Legal Intelligencer . The case, involving the First Philadelphia Charter School for Literacy, of Frankford, hints at a larger question that looms as the number of charter schools explodes across the country.

A Philadelphia charter school is in hot water again after expelling a kindergartner it says inappropriately touched another classmate's "private area. " The student's mother sued the First Philadelphia Charter School in federal court this week, charging that the 6-year-old girl was improperly expelled in May. The suit seeks to have the girl, identified in the suit as "Jasmine J.," reinstated as a first-grader and her record expunged. It also wants the school to extend proper expulsion hearings to kindergartners.

A jury found him guilty of perjury and a judge sentenced him to prison, but Rep. Frank Serafini won mercy yesterday from his Republican colleagues in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives. Using procedural tactics that quickly silenced debate, the GOP majority shut down a Democratic effort to expel the 22-year GOP veteran after the popular lawmaker tearfully proclaimed his innocence in the well of the House. In so doing, the Republicans made history - or infamy, as Democrats saw it. Serafini is the first lawmaker in recent memory to continue serving after being convicted of a felony that the Pennsylvania Constitution says disqualifies him from serving.

A Kingsway High School student was expelled early yesterday morning for sexually harassing and soliciting sex acts from fellow students at the school. The student, who was not named because of his age and the ages of the other students involved, was found to have engaged in "unauthorized and inappropriate sexual conduct, solicitation of sexual acts and sexual harassment" in a 7-1 vote by the Kingsway Regional Board of Education, said Superintendent Terrence Crowley. One board member abstained.

As the news of more high school shootings flared across the country last week, Downingtown High School officials were forced to face a threat of their own. On March 8, shortly after shootings at Santana High School in Santee, Calif. and at Bishop Neumann Junior-Senior High School in Williamsport, Pa., a female student at Downingtown was taken into custody after allegedly threatening to use a gun at school, school officials and students said yesterday. "I can't say who was involved.

A 16-year-old Council Rock High School student who was suspended earlier this week for having a pocketknife at school could face a one-year expulsion under the district's zero-tolerance weapons policy. But principal David Yates said yesterday that after a thorough investigation, he and other district officials were leaning toward imposing a less severe punishment. The small Swiss-style knife that the student brought to school was among trinkets and keys on a key chain, Yates said.

BEIJING - China's ruling Communist elite have endorsed the expulsion of former high-flying politician Bo Xilai and approved final preparations for the party's upcoming congress. The closed-door meeting of the Central Committee that ended Sunday was the last before Communist Party leader Hu Jintao and other government officials begin to cede power to Vice President Xi Jinping and others at the congress, which opens Thursday. The Central Committee said in a statement carried by the official Xinhua news agency that it endorsed decisions to expel Bo and former Railways Minister Liu Zhijun from the Communist Party.

OAKLAND, Calif. - One Goh's life was on the skids even before he became the suspect in the nation's biggest mass school shooting since Virginia Tech. He was chased by creditors. He grieved the death of his brother. In January, he was expelled from Oikos University, a small Christian school where he studied nursing. And, police say, he was angry. Goh, born in South Korea, told them he felt disrespected by teasing about his poor English skills at the Oakland school - a college founded as a safe place where Korean immigrants could adjust to a new country and build new careers.

The facts are sobering, if not surprising - the Philadelphia School District has failed to report crime consistently, offers too little help for students traumatized by violence, and fails to implement the most effective methods citywide. The promises are lofty - more focus on violence prevention, more transparency concerning violence data, improved reporting, more and better training. More than a year after the Blue Ribbon Commission on Safe Schools was convened by Mayor Nutter and then-Superintendent Arlene C. Ackerman, its work was made public at a School Reform Commission meeting Tuesday night with the release of a 41-page report.

The facts are sobering, if not surprising - the Philadelphia School District has failed to report crime consistently, offers too little help for students traumatized by violence, and fails to implement the most effective methods citywide. The promises are lofty - more focus on violence prevention, more transparency concerning violence data, improved reporting, more and better training. More than a year after a blue ribbon commission on school safety was convened by Mayor Nutter and then-Superintendent Arlene C. Ackerman, its work was made public at a School Reform Commission meeting Tuesday night with the release of a 41-page report.

Three Mastery Charter School students who allegedly beat a man near Independence Hall during an afternoon attack last month turned themselves in to authorities Wednesday, police said. The students, who have not been named because of their ages, were identified through surveillance footage that captured the July 29 attack, police said. The assault occurred hours before a group of teens beat and robbed several people in Center City. The footage showed six teens, some wearing backpacks, walking north on Fourth Street just below Walnut.

Three Mastery Charter School students who allegedly beat a man near Independence Hall during an afternoon attack last month turned themselves in to authorities Wednesday, police said. The students, who have not been named because of their ages, were identified through surveillance footage that captured the July 29 attack, police said. The assault occurred hours before a group of teens beat and robbed several people in Center City. The footage shows six teens, some wearing backpacks, walking north on Fourth Street, just below Walnut.

A Philadelphia charter school is in hot water again after expelling a kindergartner it says inappropriately touched another classmate's "private area. " The student's mother sued the First Philadelphia Charter School in federal court this week, charging that the 6-year-old girl was improperly expelled in May. The suit seeks to have the girl, identified in the suit as "Jasmine J.," reinstated as a first-grader and her record expunged. It also wants the school to extend proper expulsion hearings to kindergartners.

A Philadelphia charter school has been sued over the expulsion of a kindergartner accused of inappropriately touching another girl. It is the second time First Philadelphia Charter School for Literacy, at 4300 Tacony St. in the Frankford section, has been taken to court for expelling a kindergartner. In May, a Common Pleas Court judge overturned the expulsion of a boy who had touched his teacher's legs, ruling that the school misconstrued why the boy had touched his teacher.

A Philadelphia charter school abused its powers when it expelled a kindergartner for touching his teacher's thigh, a Common Pleas Court judge has ruled. The unnamed 6-year-old touched the top of his teacher's thigh after she complained of leg pains, Judge Paul P. Panepinto wrote in his opinion. While touching her legs, the child said "I want to make them feel better," testified Milissa Gillespie, the boy's teacher, who reported the incident. The First Philadelphia Charter School for Literacy in Bridesburg argued that the court does not have the right to overturn the school's decision.

A judge has overturned a kindergartner's expulsion from a Philadelphia charter school for touching his teacher's thighs after she complained that her legs hurt. The 6-year-old, who had three earlier suspensions, was merely trying to comfort his teacher, the judge concluded. "I want to make them feel better," the boy told his teacher, according to a May 23 ruling by Common Pleas Judge Paul Panepinto, first reported on by The Legal Intelligencer . The case, involving the First Philadelphia Charter School for Literacy, of Frankford, hints at a larger question that looms as the number of charter schools explodes across the country.