ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, January 16, 1996 TAG: 9601160041
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOEL TURNER STAFF WRITER
Northside High School senior David Lee Smith says a BB gun resembling a under a seat in his car, and that it was left there by someone he'd given a ride to.
But Smith recently was expelled for one year because the gun was found in his car in the school's parking lot.
School officials believe the circumstances indicate Smith knew the gun was in his car. They said he violated the county's policy forbidding students to "knowingly possess" or "transmit" any object that could be considered a weapon on school property.
Now Smith has appealed the expulsion to Roanoke County Circuit Court.
Expulsion cases rarely end up in court. But Deborah Caldwell-Bono, a lawyer who represented Smith at the School Board's expulsion hearing and filed the lawsuit for him, contends he is being punished for something he didn't do. She argues the evidence was insufficient to justify expulsion, even though the School Board upheld the decision of a disciplinary review committee.
The School Board expulsion hearing was closed, but a transcript of the hearing was included in papers filed with the lawsuit.
According to the transcript, someone stopped a police car Oct. 30 and reported that a young man was brandishing a handgun in a gray car near Peters Creek Road and North Lakes Drive. The person said the car traveled toward Northside High on North Ridge Lane, the rear entrance to the school.
A few minutes later, police found Smith's gray car in the school's parking lot, according to testimony at the expulsion hearing. Smith, who attends the Arnold Burton Technology Center for part of the school day, had returned to Northside to pick up friends at the end of the day.
At the hearing, Smith said he went to the school's main entrance on Northside High Road, not on North Ridge.
After approaching the car, police asked Smith if he had a weapon. He said no and gave them permission to search his car. The gun was discovered under the front passenger's seat and was not loaded, police said at the hearing.
Police said Smith told them that it must belong to one of several people who had been riding in his car.
Smith said he had been working part time at a cafeteria and had been giving rides home to co-workers. He said one person told him the BB gun was his but was afraid to come forward. Smith said he didn't know the person's name.
Police also found a slingshot and beeper, both of which are prohibited on school property, but Smith was expelled only for the gun.
Smith said the beeper, which he had bought to communicate with his diabetic father, was broken. But school officials said they were not aware of his father's illness and no arrangement had been made for the student to use the beeper while at school. Smith said he had never taken the beeper into school and he didn't know it was in his car the day the gun was found.
Smith said he wants to join the Marines after he graduates and that the expulsion could jeopardize his enlistment.
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