Teen Hunter’s Gun-Related Expulsion Overturned Friday, January 22, 2010
In a case that received national attention, the Glenn County, Calif., Board of Education on January 22 overturned the expulsion of 17-year-old duck hunter Gary Tudesko, who was expelled from his central California high school after police dogs sniffed out unloaded shotguns in his truck. The California Legal Action Project (a joint effort by NRA-ILA and the California Rifle and Pistol Association Foundation) provided legal assistance.
The truck was legally parked off-campus, on a public street, and the guns were in the truck because Tudesko had gone hunting that morning before school. All those factors just show the school’s lack of common sense in enforcing its “zero tolerance” policy; according to guidelines from the California Department of Education, administrators don’t have to recommend expulsion unless a violation is committed at school or at a school activity. Even that agency’s website notes widespread criticism of “zero tolerance” policies.
On the legal side, the school made many errors, such as confusing its authority to expel students under California’s Education Code with the district attorney’s authority to enforce the state’s “Gun Free School Zones” law. Both the district attorney and the local police have said Tudesko would face no criminal charges.
Leading California civil rights lawyer Chuck Michel—a longtime advocate for Golden State gun owners—represented Tudesko. For more information on the Tudesko case, go to Michel’s website at
www.calgunlaws.com; for information on the NRA/CRPA Legal Action Project, go to
http://www.crpa.org/.
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