School still getting asked about gun case

A Clarendon High School student’s expulsion for bringing a gun to school ended this week, but questions still are being asked about the incident.

Four weeks ago, 17-year-old G.J. Martindale left his shotgun in his vehicle when he became sick after going dove hunting. The gun was sniffed out by drug dogs during a random search of the high school parking lot on October 3.

The school expelled the boy to an Alternative Education Program and reported the matter to the Donley County Sheriff’s Department.

The expulsion was upheld by the CISD Board of Trustees on October 13.

CISD Superintendent Monty Hysinger said some people are still wondering why the school called local law enforcement, but the school really had no choice.

“We just did what the law requires,” Hysinger said last week.

Federal law, Texas law through the state education code, and CISD policy all require law enforcement to be notified in this type of situation.

“We have to report any felony. Do people want us to determine which felonies to report? We want it to be a fair system.”

The only discretion the local administrators had was in the disciplinary action at the school.

Under the federal Gun-Free Schools Act of 1994, the school is required to expel for a period of one year any student who is determined to have brought a firearm to school. The law does allow the superintendent to modify the length of expulsion from one year based on local circumstances.

The local student was expelled for four weeks – roughly eight percent of the one year maximum.

In a similar situation reported by the Associated Press, a student in Crescent, Oklahoma, was suspended for one full year when he left a .22 rifle in his pickup after going target shooting.

Recent articles in the Amarillo Daily News and the Dallas Morning News have said Donley County has been divided over the Martindale situation, but Hysinger doesn’t see it that way.

“I don’t think it’s divided the county,” he said. “It ought to bring us together because the people see we’re trying to protect the kids.”

The superintendent said a lot of people have thanked the school for the way the situation was handled.

The future of Martindale’s case will be decided November 13, said County Attorney Stewart Messer. That’s when a local Grand Jury will meet to determine if the boy should face criminal charges.

If the jury “no bills” the case, that will be the end of it, he said.