With his parents currently asking the district for any footage from the event, be it from the bus, the office or body camera, the 13-year-old student who fled Croswell-Lexington Middle School on Friday, January 13, is scheduled to face a 1:00 p.m. school hearing on Tuesday, January 24, 2023, to determine if long-term suspension, including expulsion, is deserved.
The eighth grader alleges that Vice Principal Ryan Eugster and an assisting school security officer were taunting him after taking his bag, cellphone, hoodie and jacket for a drug search, allegedly telling him that he was only making it worse for himself, and wishing him luck with the juvenile court judge. He also alleges that he asked for the vice principal to call his parents before and during the search, with his parents only receiving a call after the child went missing.
The incident report provided by the school claims that on the previous Thursday, January 12, the boy had given a classmate a pill on the bus and told them it was “cocaine and he could get them more.” While it doesn’t explain what exactly prompted the search of the boy on Friday morning, the report goes on to say that he was in possession of a lighter and rolling papers.
“During the interview process, [the student] ran from school grounds and hid for almost four hours,” the report reads, saying that the event happened at 9:25 a.m., with the parents called almost ten minutes later.
Describing the misconduct as possession of paraphernalia for the rolling papers and lighter, distribution of drugs for the alleged pill-giving, and a closed campus violation for running “off campus during disciplinary proceedings,” the school told the boy and his parents in a letter received Wednesday, January 18, that the parents and son can be represented by an attorney or another advisor “of your choosing and at your expense,” though the hearing is not a court procedure, and thus will not use court rules of evidence.
While it is not clear in the letter if Vice Principal Eugster will be at the hearing, Superintendent Colette Moody informed the family that Middle School Principal Brad Robbins and the board of education’s attorney T. Allen Francis would be present, as well as “such resource persons as the superintendent deems essential to the proper adjudication to the case.”
It’s unclear if the family will be accompanied at the Tuesday hearing by an attorney; however, the student’s father was very clear regarding the hearing and possible suspension of his son. “I believe my son should face consequences and what he did was very wrong, but the way they handled it almost costed him his life.” He said, adding, “They threatened my child with legal consequences without a law enforcement official present, or me, his father.”
The final written determination will be rendered by Superintendent Moody within three days of January 24.
