This Bonner Springs senior almost didn’t graduate after unproven THC edible claim
On March 29, Malcolm Anthony, an African American student at predominantly white Bonner Springs High School, was suspended for 10 days, according to a letter from Assistant Principal Lindsay McCracken to Anthony’s mother, Dalana Johnson.
Another student accused Anthony of providing him with an edible filled with THC, a psychoactive ingredient in marijuana. After a disciplinary hearing in April, and with little hard evidence, Anthony was expelled for the remainder of the school year.
A serious breach of school regulations, school district officials called it.
Anthony missed nearly a month of school before the erroneous decision was overturned by the Bonner Springs/Edwardsville School District Board of Education.
Thank God.
Anthony, 18, a two-sport athlete, couldn’t attend prom and sat out an entire track and field season while on suspension. He was prohibited from attending senior awards night, too. His participation in graduation ceremonies was in doubt. Happily, though, Anthony walked with his fellow 2022 graduates on Thursday.
Anthony was denied his right to due process, though, his mother told me. She had documentation to prove Anthony was wrongfully accused of using and possessing drugs at school. He should have never been suspended.
After looking over documents from family attorney Stephen R. Williams, I’m convinced Bonner Springs school officials need a refresher course on how the legal and education systems work.
You don’t discipline a student without a preponderance of evidence that the accused has violated school or district policy. By expelling Anthony, the district placed the young man in the direct path of the school-to-prison pipeline.
Students of color disproportionately suspended or expelled are more likely to drop out of school and forgo better opportunities for a life of crime or drug use, studies repeatedly show. Anthony was fortunate to have a strong support system willing to fight the district to right its wrong. Attorneys hired by Anthony’s mother found holes in the school’s shoddy investigation.
But what about students whose families don’t have the means to fight arbitrary and unfair decisions? How will Bonner Springs officials prevent another student from a similar experience? The other student involved is Black, Anthony’s family told me. Was he afforded a chance to finish his education this school year?
Messages seeking comment from McCracken, district Superintendent Dan Brungardt, and Jerry Abbott, the disciplinary hearing officer for the district, were not returned.
On a suspension and hearing form, Abbott, a retired former Bonner Springs High School principal, marked yes in a section that asked, “Was the decision supported by clear and convincing evidence?”
That evidence has yet to be presented.
Mother’s drug tests on son came back negative
The other student told school officials that he ingested a marijuana edible supplied to him by Anthony. Nothing supported the student’s claim. No corroborating witnesses were listed in the documents I read.
None.
No drugs were found in Anthony’s possession on March 25, district officials wrote in a letter to the family. A drug assessment from school nurse Brittney Atwood found Anthony acting in an erratic manner as if he was impaired that day, school documents indicate. He wasn’t, he says.
Still, Johnson, Anthony’s mother, took no chances.
Twice, Anthony was tested for drug use. An initial screening came back negative, as did a more thorough analysis of Anthony’s hair follicles.
Video surveillance at the school from March 25 showed the two students walking to Anthony’s car, district officials wrote to Johnson. Anthony went to the car for water, he told me.
The following Monday, the other student confessed he was under the influence of marijuana on school grounds, according to the letter sent to Johnson.
On April 6, a long-term suspension hearing was held. Anthony was expelled from school for the rest of the year. His mother rightfully appealed. The school board overturned the expulsion.
Anthony wasn’t a problem child at school, his mother said.
In fact, he had incentive not to mess up. A senior summer trip to Italy and Greece was on the line. Anthony’s grades and behavior would determine if he would be allowed to go.
Anthony was focused on enjoying his senior year of high school. The first three were interrupted by the pandemic and construction at the school, he said.
“My graduating class never really got a normal school year,” he said. “And then this happens.”
Anthony plans to study mass communications at Northwest Missouri State University in Maryville. He wants to be a sports broadcaster.
Anthony wasn’t a troublemaker at Bonner Springs High and had no previous disciplinary issues. He’d been a student in Bonner Springs since he was in middle school. Teachers and administrators knew him for years. And then they turned on him.
Anthony was expelled without any evidence to back the school’s claim he violated district policy. How is that remotely fair?
It isn’t.
