Opinion ID: 216418
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Knife Incident

Text: This case stems from a dispute between S.M. and her classmate, K.C. Following a confrontation between these two students over romantic notes that one sent to the other’s boyfriend, K.C. told S.M.’s friend, J.C., that “she wasn’t going to fight [S.M.] without her knife.” The next day, K.C. told J.C. that she brought her knife to school and that S.M. “should watch her back.” Another student later said that “[K.C.] told alot [sic] of people that she was going to kill [S.M.].” S.M. and J.C. reported these events to the assistant principal. Though an initial search of K.C.’s belongings did not yield the knife, at least two students reported that K.C. told them that she hid the knife before turning her purse over to administrators. Later that day, S.M.’s boyfriend discovered the knife in K.C.’s purse and gave it to the assistant principal. K.C. then admitted to threatening to use the knife on S.M. and to bringing the knife to school “just like [she] [did] every day.” The assistant principal turned the knife over to the authorities. Principal Steven Lambert suspended K.C. for ten days. -2- No. 09-4451 McComas v. Bd. of Educ. When K.C. arrived home, she denied threatening S.M. or taking the knife to school and claimed that school administrators coerced her into signing a false confession. K.C.’s mother admitted that the knife found at school looked like K.C.’s knife. She told Superintendent Evans, however, that K.C. found her knife in her room the next weekend. Following this conversation, Evans told Lambert that they might “not be able to prove that [K.C.] had a knife at school.” Evans relayed K.C.’s parents’ position to the Board. Upon learning that K.C. recanted her story and that the school might permit K.C. to return, McComas—S.M.’s mother and a teacher at Rock Hill—complained and asked Lambert to investigate further. McComas also expressed her concerns to Evans and the Board via letter. At the end of her suspension, K.C. returned to Rock Hill for one day and attended classes with S.M. The two did not speak. But, during one shared class, K.C. got up to sharpen her pencil and stared at S.M., leaving her “completely terrorized.” S.M. found K.C.’s presence so upsetting that she missed two Ohio Graduation Tests administered that week. McComas again spoke to Lambert about allowing K.C. back at school. Soon after this incident, McComas appeared before the Board (the March 2007 Board meeting) to argue against K.C.’s permanent return to campus. She read and distributed a prepared statement, explaining that the failure to expel K.C. resulted in anger at S.M. and student speculation that the incident was blown out of proportion. During this meeting, Evans said that he “underst[ood] that [S.M.] initially was the aggressor.” K.C.’s parents removed her from school due to headaches and home-schooled her the rest of the year. -3- No. 09-4451 McComas v. Bd. of Educ.