A Missouri father is fighting back after the local high school suspended his daughter for writing about weed in her personal journal. Tom Grayhorse is a loving dad and he is furious that his daughter, Krystal, has been kicked out of school for most of the year due to writings discovered in her journal. Originally, the district suspended Krystal for 10 days, but later extended her suspicion through the remainder of the school year. Ultimately, this means that she will lose needed credits for graduation and her permanent record is forever tainted, making college admission an uphill battle.
Grayhorse told local reporters that his daughter has never been in trouble before now. Last May, she was called to the principal’s office after school staff members found her missing journal and read it. The school claims that it includes personal accounts of Krystal using pot. She wrote that she had thought about bringing it to school, although that has never happened according to her dad. However, the school took action and suspended Crystal simply for mentioning marijuana in her journal. Dallas County Superintendent Robin Rickie said that the decision wasn’t up for debate. “Anything that’s drug-related or alcohol-related, we are going to have a zero tolerance,” he said. However, Grayhorse said that his daughter came home with paperwork noting that the suspension was a disciplinary action related to “possession of a controlled substance” and he said that was not true. “She had no cannabis on her person,” he insisted. To make things even worse, the high school confiscated the journal and refuses to let Krystal’s father read it. He says that the school district is out of line and that his daughter’s creativity is not reasons enough to kick her out of school. He said the journal entries might have even been fictitious. “She does write fiction stories. She likes to write,” he said. “It could have been part of a story.” Grayhorse filed a formal appeal with the district and the case will be heard at the school board meeting later this week. If the board members refuse to allow Krystal to return to school, then she will not be able to graduate this spring. This loving dad is going to do whatever it takes to get justice for his child. “It was a personal notebook. It wasn’t a school notebook she had to turn in,” he explained. “She didn’t write anything about being in Al-Qaida, she didn’t write about giving (marijuana) to anybody else, so why did she receive such a harsh punishment?” But officials from the school district insist that the punishment fits the crime, insisting that the well meaning father doesn’t know the full story. Yet they refuse to fill him in on any details or let him see the journal that started all of the problems. How is it possible that today’s teens can receive the same punishment for bringing pot to school and scribbling the word “marijuana” in a notebook? This is especially ironic considering that Missouri recently moved to legalize cannabis oil! This is a matter of public events in the state, yet students cannot even mention it in a private journal? Seriously, what are these school officials thinking?
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