Alief ISD, located on the west side of Houston, Texas, has a strict policy for those students who get into fights. Students who "participate" in a fight are expelled. Now the parents of Matthew Meloy, a former student at Hastings High School, are fighting that rule, suing the district after their son was brutally beaten during his senior year.

Meloy says he was jumped by four other students who were bullying another member of the baseball team.

His family blames it on Alief ISD's strict "no fighting" policy.

"He'd write, "Dad, I didn't want to get kicked out. I didn't want to get suspended. I didn't want to fight. I didn't want to do that because I didn't want that to happen', " says his father, Rick Meloy.

Meloy's father says his son was obeying the school district's zero tolerance policy when it comes to fighting.

"He absolutely knew that because that is something that is in the handbook at the school. It's drilled into the students' heads that if you participate in any way you will be expelled," says Jess Mason, the family's attorney.

When asked if they tell kids not to fight back, "We tell them not to assume they can use that as a justification," says the district's Paula Smith.

Just how badly was the 215-pound, 6-foot three-inches Matthew beaten? Well, his injuries included a jaw broken in two places, teeth floating on busted gums and injuries so severe that he couldn't talk. Two years later, he still has additional surgery ahead of him.

This rule and the way it is expalined and enforced makes students incredibly vulnerable. Matthew Meloy was terrified of being expelled just weeks before graduation, which would have destroyed his future plans for a college education at Texas A&M, one of the finest educational institutions in Texas (no matter what I say to the faces of my Aggie friends). Instead he was beaten to a pulp and could easily have been killed.

Will the next victim of this policy be a young woman who fears that any resistance to a sexual assault will result in her expulsion?

It seems to me that the courts need to intervene and hold those who make such policies liable both professionally and personally for the damage that they and their policies cause.

Posted by: Greg at 06:30 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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