Rutherford Institute Sues Maryland School

For Immediate Release: December 11, 2013
Rutherford Institute Sues Maryland School Over Wrongful Suspension of Lacrosse Players for Possession of Deadly Weapons (Penknife, Lighter)

BALTIMORE, Md. — Attorneys for The Rutherford Institute have filed a civil rights lawsuit on behalf of two former high school lacrosse players who were suspended for possessing “deadly weapons,” namely a penknife and a butane lighter, which were found in their lacrosse bags. Although it was understood that the tools were used by the boys to maintain their lacrosse equipment, the police were called and one player was actually handcuffed, fingerprinted and charged with possession of a deadly weapon. In a complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for Maryland, Institute attorneys allege that the Board of Education of Talbot County and several school officials violated Graham Dennis and Casey Edsall’s constitutional right to due process by suspending them from Easton High School on the basis that the tools constituted “dangerous weapons,” as well as their Fourth Amendment right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures.

The complaint in Dennis and Edsall v. Board of Educ. of Talbot County is at www.rutherford.org.

“By majoring in minors, as it were, treating all students as suspects and harshly punishing kids for innocent mistakes, the schools are setting themselves and their students up for failure—not only by focusing on the wrong individuals and allowing true threats to go undetected but also by treating young people as if they have no rights, thereby laying the groundwork for future generations that are altogether ignorant of their rights as citizens and unprepared to defend them,” said John W. Whitehead, president of The Rutherford Institute and author of A Government of Wolves: The Emerging American Police State, which examines the impact of school zero tolerance policies in shaping young people’s ideas about personal freedom. “Thus far, the courts have done little to improve conditions for young people who are the unfortunate casualties in the schools’ so-called quest for ‘student safety.’ It is our hope that this case will be the tipping point to reverse that trend.”

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