A Virginia Beach, Virginia, judge said it was “appalling” that a school suspended a 6th grader for waiting too long to report that another student had brought a bullet to class.
The judge ruled Monday in favor of the child’s mother, Rachel Wigand, after she sued St. John the Apostle Catholic School for breaching its contract when administrators suspended her son in September for a day and a half.
The child, who was identified in the lawsuit as A.W., received the same suspension as the student who allegedly brought the bullet to class.
“A suspension on a child’s academic record is permanent. When you’re enrolling children in subsequent educational places, they ask you that question: has your kid ever been suspended? What happened to her child was so absurd,” said attorney Tim Anderson, who represented Wigand.
“It wasn’t fair that the mom was going to have to answer that question, yes, for the remainder of this child’s academic career,” he said.
The child was in class, preparing to take a standardized test, when another student pulled out a bullet and showed it to him. Anderson previously told NBC News said the child took the test, which lasted about an hour and a half, went to another class, and then told the principal.
It was about two hours between the child seeing the bullet and him alerting the principal, Anderson said. School administrators called the police, and officers found the bullet in the student’s bag, according to Anderson.
Judge Vivian Henderson said to see the child punished for trying to do the right thing was “appalling, for a lack of a better word, for this court.”
“Especially in an environment where … younger and younger kids are being forced to make adult-like decisions without clear boundaries or parameters,” Henderson said in a recording of Monday’s hearing provided to NBC News by Anderson.
She said “the unfortunate victim in this matter” was Wigand’s son.
An attorney for the school had said in closing arguments that it is written in the school’s handbook and in the tuition contract that St. John the Apostle has the right to impose “a more or less severe form of discipline.” The attorney also argued that it is stressed in school that safety incidents need to be reported immediately.
The attorney said the decision to send Wigand’s son home “was clearly harping back on that lesson and trying to impose a lesson of ‘Hey, this is why it’s important.’”
Anderson said the school could have put the child in detention or imposed another type of in-school disciplinary action.
The Catholic Diocese of Richmond said while it disagrees with the court’s decision, it respects the legal process.
“Our focus continues to be providing enriching and Christ-centered learning experiences for our students, and we are hopeful this conclusion will bring all parties involved an opportunity to move forward,” a spokesperson said in a statement.
Wigand previously told NBC News that her son had wanted to stay anonymous when reporting the incident, but the school took that away when he was suspended.
Anderson said Tuesday the child has been bullied since the incident, and Wigand plans on enrolling him and her other children in a new school.
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