School Board Doubles Down Over Suspension Of In-Home BB Gun

The saga of young Ka’Mauri Harrison took another turn late last week when the Jefferson Parish school board held a hearing regarding the 4th-grader’s suspension from school for violating the district’s weapons policy after a teacher briefly spotted the barrel of a BB gun during an online class. During the hearing, the school board retroactively reduced Harrison’s suspension from six days to three, but Harrison’s father and attorney ended up leaving the hearing after the board ruled against allowing the state’s Solicitor General to testify on behalf of the student.

Advertisement

Nyron Harrison grew frustrated after his attorney tried to call Louisiana Solicitor General Elizabeth Murrill to testify on behalf of his son, 9-year-old Ka’Mauri Harrison, who had been suspended from school for handling a BB gun during a virtual class. School Board member Mark Morgan, who was running the meeting, objected to the request and, with no opposition from other members, refused to let Murrill take the stand.

“Y’all shameful,” Harrison said loudly, before gathering up Ka’Mauri and walking out of the room. “We’re leaving. Y’all ain’t a court!”

On today’s Bearing Arms’ Cam & Co. Nyron Harrison and attorney Chelsea Cusimano join me to talk about the results of the hearing, and Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry joins the show as well with his reaction to the school board’s decision to reduce the suspension but leave the overall disciplinary charge on Harrison’s record.

Nyron Harrison says that he simply wanted an apology from the school district in addition to having the disciplinary measure stricken from his son’s record, but now that the district has made its decision, he’s done with any more discussions. Instead, the family is focusing on the lawsuit that they’ve filed against the Jefferson Parish school board, and are hoping to find relief in the federal court system.

Landry, in the meantime, says he’s not through with the issue either, which he notes goes far beyond Harrison’s specific case. Other students in Jefferson Parish have also faced suspension over the inadvertent display of a BB gun during virtual classes, and the attorney general says it’s critically important that school districts quit trying to declare that private homes are an extension of the public school building when virtual learning is involved.

Advertisement

Ka’Mauri Harrison isn’t the first kid we’ve seen suspended because a teacher overreacted to the sight of a toy gun during an online class, and I suspect he won’t be the last either. While this isn’t specifically a Second Amendment issue, Cusimano says that because the school accused Ka’Mauri of violating federal prohibitions on bringing weapons onto campus, there is a Second Amendment component to the federal lawsuit that the family has filed.

I wish I could say that I was surprised by the school board’s unwillingness to reverse the original decision to suspend Ka’Mauri Harrison, but I’m not. It’s been pretty clear from the outset that the school board doesn’t want to admit that officials were in the wrong when they suspended the 4th grader after he picked up a BB gun from the floor of the bedroom he shares with his younger brother and rested it against the side of his desk so his sibling wouldn’t trip over it, and the half-measure taken by the board to reduce Harrison’s suspension while continuing to hold him at fault is a sign to me that the board is more interested in covering its collective rear end than in delivering a just and fair outcome in the case.

Be sure to check out today’s entire show in the video window above for more details about the case and where we might be headed next. Even though the school board’s decision puts an end to Ka’Mauri Harrison’s appeal, it’s clear that both Ka’Mauri’s family and his supporters in Louisiana state government aren’t through with their fight for justice.

Advertisement

Join the conversation as a VIP Member

Sponsored