Expulsion No Easy Answer to Students With Guns : Education: L.A. district policy applies to diverse circumstances. Some say penalty adds to problem.

Renee Benson used an emotional plea. Vickie Yates used an attorney.

Last week, both women tried to dissuade the Los Angeles Board of Education from expelling their children for having weapons at school, a growing problem that has prompted tougher punishment to stem campus shootings.

“She made a stupid mistake, but sometimes children of 13 make stupid mistakes,” Benson said, her eyes brimming with tears. Benson’s 13-year-old daughter admits bringing a BB gun that looked like a revolver to Lawrence Middle School in Woodland Hills.

Yates’ 14-year-old son admits knowing there was a 9-millimeter handgun in his locker at Wright Middle School in Westchester.

The two cases, typical of the expulsions reviewed by the board every two weeks, underscore the rigidity of the school board’s policy, critics say. Board members find themselves with little or no leeway in weapons cases, forced to expel students--like Yates’ son--who didn’t even touch the gun.

Benson’s daughter, Nicole, was expelled. Yates’ attorney, Wendy Segall, had more luck. She persuaded the board to delay a decision on the case until mid-September as well as review a portion of the Los Angeles Unified School District’s expulsion policy.

Board members who support the 15-month-old policy say they would rather expel students for bringing guns to school than reassign them to other campuses, which is what the school district did for years.

Besides, students can usually reapply for admission to district schools within at least six months of their expulsion, supporters say.

The board is not unanimous on the issue. “The cost for these kids is just too high,” said member Jeff Horton, who opposes the district’s expulsion policy for students under 16. “Kicking a kid out of school, in my mind, only encourages antisocial behavior.”

State and district officials say they have little choice. They do not want to assign students to other campuses if there is a chance of violence.

“The reality is you have to have a rigid policy because (weapons possession) is so prevalent,” said Maureen DiMarco, Gov. Pete Wilson’s secretary of education and child development. “Certainly in Los Angeles, where they’ve had students tragically killed with weapons, I think you have to have strong policies.

“What are the other options? You could frisk and metal-detect every single student and then school would start at one o’clock in the afternoon,” she said.

The current board policy requires students who bring guns to school--including BB guns and stun guns--to be expelled from the district. Previously, those students could be assigned to alternative campuses within the district.

The state law governing expulsions is less severe. It allows districts to either expel students or transfer them.

Board members amended their policy three times in as many years after being harshly criticized for transferring weapons-toting students rather than expelling them. In addition, the board was under pressure to make schools safer after three campus shootings last year, two of them fatal.

During the 1993-94 school year, the board expelled 166 students for bringing guns to school. In 1992-93, the board expelled 256 students.

Board members excused just two students from the expulsion policy in the last 18 months. Both cases involved BB guns found in the students’ lockers. The board--and the officials who review each case--found that the students had intended to inform authorities when the weapons were discovered.

District officials say Benson’s daughter--known to the school board as Case 494--and Yates’ son--known as Case 581--are typical of the dozens of expulsion cases they review. Both students had minor behavioral problems before and received mostly Cs and Ds in class.

In addition to their trouble with school district authorities, the two face charges in the juvenile court system. If found guilty of bringing firearms to school, a felony, they could be sentenced to a maximum of four years detention.

Both say they are at most guilty of being loyal to friends, even for the wrong reasons. Their parents say they did not have the emotional maturity to turn their friends in.

Sean Swan, who keeps a pet rat named Pepper and a collection of video games in his room, said his best friend brought a handgun and bullets to school on May 24. Sean, who is Vickie Yates’ son, said his friend showed him the gun before classes began.

The boy told Sean that he needed it for protection because he had been threatened by 18- and 19-year-old gang members.

“I said, ‘No matter what you do, don’t put it in my locker,’ ” said Sean, who shared a locker with the boy in violation of school rules.

But after lunch, Sean went to his locker and saw the gun. Again, he said, he told his friend to remove the weapon.

But the friend ignored Sean and boasted to other kids about the handgun, even showing it to classmates. Then somebody told. Sean was taken to the office, arrested by police, then kicked out of school. His friend also was arrested and eventually expelled.

Since then, the soft-spoken youth has spent his time playing computer games, walking his dog and thinking about what’s next. His mother keeps a chalkboard list of his chores posted in the kitchen, including homework and cleaning his room. At the top, she wrote, “Sean, I love you.”

The eighth-grader says he has learned his lesson. “I don’t care who my friends are--I will tell next time,” he said. “I don’t ever want to go through this again. I would tell someone immediately.”

His mother, a single woman and legal secretary in Century City, said she hired an attorney after talking to the lawyers at her firm. They suggested that the legal representation might help. Yates decided to take their advice even though hiring an attorney will cost her at least $1,500, which is creating a financial hardship, Yates said.

Sean, she added, “is going to get a job and pay this back.”

So far, Yates’ efforts have paid off. Segall, the attorney, argues that Sean’s expulsion should be overturned on a legal technicality involving the definition of possession. Sean, she says, should not have been considered to be in possession of the weapon because it was in a locker he shared with another student.

“My argument is simply that there was no possession, and I feel that the board has not been given a complete definition of what possession is,” Segall said. “He should be punished for sharing the locker and for not telling anyone about the gun, but they have no policy for that.”

After a lengthy dialogue with Segall, the district’s lawyers and other officials, the board on Monday night took five votes on the issue and ended up agreeing to delay the case and review that section of the policy.

Board member Vickie Castro supported Sean’s expulsion, saying that even knowledge of a gun should be grounds for expulsion. “We’ve lost students at other schools and the bigger crime was that there were other students who knew there were guns on campus,” Castro said. “A gun on campus is serious and endangers everyone on that site. If you know there’s a gun, it’s your obligation to report it.”

Board member Leticia Quezada agreed but said the expulsion should be upheld “for fairness and equity.”

While the board debated Sean’s case for about an hour, Renee Benson says she was completely ignored. Benson, who waited six hours before she could speak to the board last week, offered an impassioned plea that ended with tears rolling down her face.

“Is it your goal to make my daughter a gang member or a criminal by turning her out into the street?” she said. “I am asking every single one of you to rescue my child and allow her back into school.”

It was her second attempt to get the board to overturn her daughter’s expulsion, but the board swiftly and without comment voted to expel Nicole.

For Nicole Benson, the board action means that she cannot attend a district school for at least six months. She could reapply for admission then, and the decision would be up to the school board.

She says a friend handed her the BB gun before she got on the school bus last April. Nicole says she didn’t want to take the weapon, but her friend asked her to keep it until after school.

When she got to school, Nicole said she let another friend borrow her jacket--with the empty BB gun in the pocket. The friend showed it to other students and before long, Nicole was pulled out of class and arrested.

The BB gun had been placed in a locker and district officials said they still are uncertain who placed it there. Nonetheless, Nicole was expelled and faces felony charges for bringing a weapon to school.

The girl says she has paid enough.

“You know how scared I was?” Nicole said, flopping down on the couch at her North Hollywood apartment. “I thought I was never going to get home. I thought I was never going to see my mom again.”

Her mother said suspension from school would have been enough. Placing her daughter in a county school--her only alternative because she cannot afford private school, she said--will be a nightmare for Nicole.

“She’s worth saving. She’s not violent,” Renee Benson said. “(But) their policy makes no provision for stupid mistakes.”