It appears that he is on the road to recovery, and day by day, is slowly joining the rest of the human race. By the way, Cobb County is largely Newt Country:Swiss Army Knife In Cobb School Parking Lot Should Not Be Prosecuted
County's 'Zero Tolerance' Program Ensnares Another Student
Atlanta, GA (September 5, 2007) – Former Georgia Congressman Bob Barr today blasted school officials in Cobb County, Georgia, a northwest suburb of Atlanta, for seeking to bring felony charges against a 12th grade student, Wilford Ray Chandler, Jr., for simply having a small Swiss Army knife in his car in a school parking lot at Wheeler High School.
"The student posed no threat to anyone, and he was not using the knife in any threatening manner," Barr noted, "in fact, he was not using the knife at all - it was simply in his car." "Trying to ruin a student's career before it even begins, by treating such an innocuous activity as having a Swiss Army pocketknife in a car, is nothing short of an unthinking, stupid, and vindictive exercise of government power," Barr, a former federal prosecutor, said.
Barr said he hoped the county's prosecutors, including District Attorney Pat Head and Solicitor Barry Morgan, would quickly drop any charges against the student, and thereby "exercise the common sense and understanding that county school officials and police apparently lack, as evidenced by the unyielding and ridiculous 'zero tolerance' program and the unreasonable application of the policy to a student with no criminal record or intent and who exhibited nothing that could be remotely viewed by reasonable people as criminal behavior."
http://www.theweekly.com/news/2007/September/05/Wilford_Chandler.htmlMore about this monumental miscarriage of justice:Knife In Car Equals Felony Charge For Teen
COBB COUNTY, Ga. -- Will Chandler said he knows he should not have left campus when he and two friends left Wheeler High School for lunch a week ago.
“I was like, ‘Alright, I’m going to get in trouble.’ I didn’t even know the knife was in there. I completely forgot about it and then they pulled it out,” said Chandler.
A school officer found a Swiss Army knife in Chandler’s car’s console. Under the school’s zero tolerance policy it was an automatic suspension for Chandler.
The next day, the Chandlers found out Will had also been charged with a felony.
“We found out that my son, there’s a felony warrant out for him. It just seems like a nightmare. We’re still in shock,” said Sharon Chandler.
Will Chandler was booked into the Cobb County Jail and his mother started a quest to find answers.
“When the principal said to me, ‘This could kill someone,’ I said to him, ‘So could a pencil.’ My son did not have this on his physical body, did not have it on him, it was not in his backpack, it was not in his locker. It was in the console of the car,” said Sharon.
The Chandlers said Will has a clean record and never would have taken the utility knife into the school, much less hurt anybody.
The Chandlers said they understood Will’s suspension for 10 days, but they believe a felony charge against the high school senior is over the top.
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