LA HABRA : Schools Expel Two for Carrying Knives

Two students caught with knives were recently expelled from the La Habra City School District.

One student was an 11-year-old fifth-grade boy at Sierra Vista Elementary School, who wielded a knife and threatened to use it on other students as they walked home from school last month, district officials said.

In the other incident, which occurred last November, a 13-year-old eighth-grader at Imperial Middle School was carrying a lock-blade knife hidden in a hand brace, said Supt. Richard Hermann. Other students saw the knife and reported it to the principal, he said.

The expulsions were the first in eight years and the first ever involving weapons, officials said.

After expelling the students, school board members said the severity of the offenses prompted them to send letters to parents, reminding them that the district offers no second chances to students found with weapons.

“The (offenses) concerned the board enough to send letters home, providing some comfort to parents by telling them they can send their children to school, where the board is doing everything possible to make it a safe place,” Hermann said.

The letters urged parents to talk to their children about the dangers weapons pose and encourage them to tell teachers or administrators if they see such objects on campus.

The district has a “zero tolerance” policy regarding weapons on campus. Anyone caught with firearms, knives, explosives, other dangerous objects or replicas of such items will be expelled for the remainder of the school year, after a hearing is held.

“Our job is to protect all the children, because you don’t know what someone’s going to do if they have access to a weapon,” School Board President Nancy S. Zinberg said. “They can hurt somebody, and it frightens other children.

“We want kids to learn to negotiate, mediate, conciliate and discuss,” she added. “That is the goal of behavior we’re looking for. They have to learn how to deal with life in some way other than violence, because we’re just not going to tolerate violence.”