Boy Transferred in Razor Incident : Education: School district, family reach agreement over kindergartner who had shown blade he found to classmates on bus.

A kindergartner who faced expulsion after he took a razor blade that he found near his bus stop to school was ordered Wednesday to transfer to another school.

“We can’t say we’re happy with the decision, but we’re glad it’s over,” said Judy Palmer, the boy’s grandmother.

The controversy began Nov. 15, when 5-year-old Tyler Palmer pocketed a one-inch disposable razor blade he found lying on the ground just before he boarded the school bus. When the bus driver saw him showing the razor to classmates, he sent the boy to the principal’s office at San Marino Elementary School in Buena Park. Tyler has been suspended from school since then.

Under the Centralia School District’s zero-tolerance policy, implemented more than a year ago, any student in kindergarten through sixth grade who is caught with “weapons of any kind” is automatically recommended to the school board for expulsion.

For the past month, because of his suspension, lesson plans had to be sent to Tyler at his home, as his family tried to appeal his case and overturn the district policy. The family--which did not enlist the help of a lawyer--had battled both school officials and parents who have sided with the district at school board meetings.

Family spokeswoman Judy Palmer said the boy’s parents contended that the policy is unjust because it does not consider age or intent and that the board members had no reason to expel their son.

“They even told me they didn’t think he had any harmful intent, but that they are just following the rules,” she said. “His teacher likes him and even has offered to write him a recommendation. He’s a good boy who just loves to play soccer and goes to church.”

Following an afternoon of negotiations with the child’s mother, the district Wednesday agreed to bus both Tyler and his twin sister to another school. The Palmers did not want to separate the twins. The district also will remove the mention of weapons possession from Tyler’s school record.

Tyler’s mother, Candy Palmer, continues to believe the policy is unfair but is glad her son will have no record of carrying a weapon, Judy Palmer said.

A school district spokeswoman said that “the case has been resolved to serve the best interests of the child and the school” but refused to comment further.

Although the case is unusual because of Tyler’s age, attorneys and educators said anti-weapons policies have mushroomed nationwide, triggering numerous lawsuits. The debate often is over the definition of a weapon.

For instance, a Winston-Salem, N.C., student was expelled for possessing a “semblance of a weapon,” which was a cardboard cutout of a gun in a car window. A 15-year-old girl in Massachusetts was expelled for wielding an empty lipstick holder with the exposed pin inside, which the school considered a weapon. Her lawsuit is pending in the state Supreme Court. And in Huntington Beach, a boy was forced to transfer to another school for carrying nail clippers.

Some argue that zero-tolerance policies are proactive attacks against weapons.

“This policy tells the community that we are serious about cracking down on weapons in school,” said Mike Kilbourn, the Orange County superintendent’s director of special services. “A bar of soap can be dangerous if used incorrectly. Realistically, these things can be made into any dangerous weapon.”

But some educators argue that expelling a child only places the school’s problem in another school or onto the streets.

The National Assn. of State Boards of Education reported in October after a yearlong study of school violence and its impact on learning that zero-tolerance programs are ineffective.

In the nationwide study, researchers urged “that education leaders and other policy-makers not give in to calls for ‘quick fix’ legislation that may provide money for metal detectors or put some delinquent students out on the street, but do little to change the environments that breed violent behaviors.”

Although happy the battle is over, Judy Palmer said she is not satisfied. She plans to work with the office of Assemblywoman Doris Allen (R-Cypress), which is developing a bill that would exempt children in kindergarten through sixth grade from zero-tolerance policies.

“I’m gonna work very hard to get this out of all schools,” she said. “It ain’t over until it’s over.”