Students do have rights

We are writing this letter in response to the article in last week's edition titled "Parents contest expulsion."

We feel that the article was well reported and that it will hopefully educate parents regarding what rights their children are allowed in our public school system today.

The Student Code of Conduct book refers to Florida State Statutes throughout its pages. The same state statutes, however, do not follow the student when a possible crime is committed. We feel that the punishments extended to students should be comparable with the crime. We also feel that each case should be dealt with individually. We feel that there has been an abuse of the Zero Tolerance Policy at the expense of children.

For the record, our son never admitted to the marijuana being his...in fact, all documents verify that he said it was not his and he had no knowledge of its existence until it was found. Unfortunately, our son may have said things that were incriminating. He only said these things after repeated interrogation without parental representation. Throughout the agonizing interrogation, our son never claimed ownership of what was found in his car on that day.

We went public with our case because we felt we have to for all the children in Santa Rosa County. Parents, make sure your children know that they do have rights. They can call you and have you present when questioned by school officials regarding non-academic issues. All they need to do is insist upon their parent's presence and don't talk until the parent arrives!

Thank you for allowing us to share a portion of our story. We hope that it will be a beginning of change for our students...the future leaders of America!

William and Lisa Busby

Gulf Breeze