W-H-A board votes to hold expulsion hearing for student writing threats

I first started at the Bemidji (Minn.) Pioneer as an intern in the summer of 1996. That would begin six years as a news reporter, sports reporter and copy editor for a small, six-day-per-week daily newspaper in northern Minnesota. I wrote a large range of stories from multiple beats, to features to sports, my favorite being the coverage of the Red Lake Reservation High School basketball team named the Warriors. Here is a collection of my stories from my time at the Pioneer.

June 16, 1999

By Devlyn Brooks

The Walker-Hackensack-Akeley School Board voted to proceed with an expulsion hearing for the 15-year-old student charged in connection with writing threatening graffiti on a Walker school building wall in May.

The student, who wrote a threatening message on a junior high boys' bathroom wall on two consecutive days, caused the cancellation of the final two days of school in the district.

W-H-A Superintendent Boyd McClarty said Tuesday the school has hired an attorney to proceed with an expulsion hearing.

First, the district will hire a hearing officer, who will then establish a date for the expulsion hearing. At the hearing, the school will present its evidence for expulsion.

Once the hearing officer, usually someone from the Twin Cities, hears the evidence they will make a recommendation to the W-H-A School Board whether they feel the student should be expelled.

The board will then either affirm the expulsion or deny it, McClarty said.

Meanwhile, the student, who still remains in custody, is being processed in the juvenile court system, according to Cass County Attorney Earl Maus.

The student is charged with something similar to the adult charge of terroristic threats, Maus said, but it is different because the penalties are different in the juvenile system.

Maus said he decided against seeking adult court certification for the 15-year-old last week because there wasn't a strong likelihood of succeeding.

The student was apprehended by the Walker Police Department June 2, but prior to the arrest McClarty had cancelled the district's final two days of class. The district's three schools averaged about 50 percent attendance in the days after the threats were made public.

In addition to a host of other security precautions, Walker police officers had guarded the district's buildings through June 3 when the alleged threat was supposed to have been carried out.

McClarty said students have already returned to school for summer lessons.