Opinion ID: 2045745
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: facts

Text: OPS adopted a student code of conduct for the 1994-95 school year, which included the following section: e. Weapons (Guns, Knives and Other Dangerous Weapons) (Grades 7-12) Students are forbidden knowingly and voluntarily to bring to school, possess, handle, transmit or use any gun, knife, or other dangerous weapons in school or on school grounds or at a school function off school grounds. First Offense: Expulsion. Remainder of the semester and the following semester or the remainder of the semester, summer school and the first semester of the following year..... In August 1994, Kolesnick signed a form acknowledging his receipt of a handbook containing the student code of conduct and other school rules. Sometime prior to September 23, 1994, Kolesnick obtained a switchblade comb. Kolesnick and a friend removed the comb portion of the switchblade and replaced it with a knife blade. Kolesnick boarded OPS bus 686 on the morning of September 23, with the switchblade knife in his pocket. In the presence of Tim Condon, a fourth grade student on the bus, Kolesnick opened the switchblade knife and poked a hole in his own jacket sleeve. Condon stated that Kolesnick also poked a hole in the seat in front of him. Condon told two other students that Kolesnick had a knife. Kolesnick then placed the knife in his notebook, where he carried it throughout the schoolday at King Science Center. That evening, Condon told his parents about the incident on the bus. Condon's mother asked him not to discuss the incident with anyone for fear of retaliation by Kolesnick. On the evening of September 27, Condon's mother informed Frank Murch, OPS bus 686's regular driver, of the incident and told him she had been keeping Condon home out of concern for Condon's safety. On the morning of September 28, Murch related his conversation with Condon's mother to his supervisor, Martha Holmes. Holmes immediately contacted King Science Center to inform them that Kolesnick was in possession of a knife on OPS bus 686. Upon receiving that information, Frison and Forth Carmichael, a security officer, immediately searched Kolesnick's locker. When no knife was found, Kolesnick was asked to go to Frison's office. Frison asked Kolesnick about the incident on OPS bus 686. Kolesnick stated that he had shown Condon a nail clipper with a foldout knife he had found on the street. Frison then contacted Condon's mother, who related Condon's story about the switchblade knife to Frison. Robert Jorgensen, principal of King Science Center, questioned Kolesnick as to where the switchblade was. Kolesnick told him it was at his home. Jorgensen then suggested that Frison and Kolesnick go to Kolesnick's home and retrieve the knife. Frison, Carmichael, and Kolesnick then went to Kolesnick's home. Frison explained the situation to Shaw, and Shaw invited Frison and Carmichael into her home. Kolesnick then went to his room and produced a nail clipper which did not fit Condon's description of the knife he saw. Frison explained to Shaw and Kolesnick that the item did not match the description of the object on the bus. After a more extensive search by Shaw and Kolesnick, the switchblade knife was produced and given to Frison. On September 29, 1994, Frison sent a letter to Shaw notifying her that Frison was recommending that Kolesnick be expelled from King Science Center for the remainder of the current semester and the following semester. On October 4, OPS received a request for a hearing concerning the recommendation that Kolesnick be expelled. On October 11, a hearing was held before a hearing officer to the department of student personnel for OPS, and expulsion was recommended. On October 17, Ronald Burmood, director of student personnel services for OPS, notified Kolesnick of the decision to expel him for the remainder of the current semester and the following semester. Kolesnick filed a timely appeal of that decision of the superintendent to the board of education. On November 9, the ad hoc discipline hearing committee of the board of education of OPS affirmed the decision. Pursuant to Neb.Rev.Stat. § 79-4,201 (Reissue 1994), Kolesnick then filed a petition in the district court for Douglas County by and through his mother and next friend to appeal the decision of the board of education and asked for an injunction. The defendants are OPS, the board of education for the city of Omaha, Frison, and Burmood. The court found that Kolesnick was prejudiced because his substantial rights were violated by the decision of the Defendants. The court then found that the OPS decision should be modified to an expulsion of Kolesnick for the remainder of the 1994 fall semester only. OPS and the other defendants appeal from that decision.