FULLERTON : Seventh-Grader With Knife Is Expelled

The Fullerton School District Board of Trustees this week expelled a seventh-grade student from Nicolas Junior High School for carrying a knife on campus.

The student is the ninth to be expelled for toting a weapon at school this school year, district officials said.

School Board President Robert C. Fisler said he hopes the latest expulsion will send a strong message to students that “we won’t tolerate” the bringing of knives or other weapons to school.

In this expulsion case, a parent called the junior high school last month, complaining that her child had been threatened by the knife-carrying seventh-grade boy. An administrator subsequently searched the student and found a knife in his pants pocket, Fisler said.

“The child denied making any threats but admitted he had been carrying a knife to school for two weeks,” Fisler said.

By expelling the student, “we’re protecting the rest of the schoolchildren,” he said. Fisler, who has served on the school board for 17 years, said he is “rather shocked” at the recent increase in weapons on campus.

“I’ve been on the board a long time, and we’ve seen none of that until about two years ago,” he said. “We’ve been very fortunate, however, because we haven’t had any serious problems arise, and we don’t want any.”