CC school board expels 3 students

By Kate Hayden, khayden@charlescitypress.com

The Charles City Board of Education expelled three students from the Charles City school district on Wednesday, but one student will have a chance to be readmitted for the 2017-18 school year.

The board held three closed-session meetings on Wednesday evening to discuss the individual cases of the students with Charles City Middle School Principal Rick Gabel and Attorney Jim Hanks, of Ahlers & Cooney, P.C., who represents the school district. No parents or students were present at the sessions.

Superintendent Dr. Dan Cox told the Press he could not confirm or deny, due to student privacy code, if the students expelled were involved in the social media threats made regarding the middle school two weeks ago.

Board members voted unanimously to expel two students from Charles City Community School District academic and extracurricular events. The third student is expelled from the district for the remainder of the 2016-17 school district, but may apply to be readmitted to the district for the 2017-18 school year.

Readmission may be granted if the student turns in a written application to district administrators and meets criteria laid out by the Board of Education, Cox said in the board’s public session.

To be readmitted, the student “must have no additional violations, arrests or charges concerning the violations of the criminal code,” Cox said in his recommendations to the board. “Any further misconduct may result in expulsion or alternative placement for longer than the remaining 2016-2017 school year.”

The student will be allowed to participate weekly in academic services at the public library with district staff members to monitor progress; district staff may decide whether the student uses a Chromebook or traditional textbooks. The board also requires the student to complete school-based and non-school-based counseling and therapy sessions, and take part in one extra-curricular or community activity in fall 2017.

Three district students — two 14-year-olds and a 15-year-old — were charged on March 28 by the Charles City Police Department with threat of terrorism, a class-D felony, after the students were allegedly involved in a threatening social media post regarding the Charles City Middle School. One student was also charged with interference of official acts, a misdemeanor. Those students are in the custody of juvenile court services.