A student from Bayside Middle School in Virginia Beach, Va., was suspended last week for stopping her classmate from cutting himself with a razor blade on campus.
Sixth-grader Adrionna Harris witnessed her friend cutting himself with the object while there were no teachers around and took it upon herself to step in.
According to the school’s official report of the incident, Harris reported the student had a razor blade and then admitted to taking it and throwing it away. Upon hearing about the incident, reporter Andy Fox of WAVY questioned why Harris was suspended at all.
Harris told WAVY of Hampton Roads, VA., she took the razor blade and convinced her classmate that what he was doing was wrong. She then threw the blade away immediately.
Once she reported the incident to the school, though, she was given a 10-day suspension with a recommended expulsion as the institution has a zero-tolerance policy regarding weapons on campus.
The school argued she should have brought the item to a teacher.
When asked how she felt about the situation, Harris told Fox she thought the school was in the wrong because she didn’t use the blade.
“I was just trying to help,” she said. “I didn’t really like flash it or wave it at anyone. I took it and I threw it away.”
Harris, though, said she had no regrets about choosing to take the blade.
“Even if I did get in trouble, it didn’t matter because as long as I am helping him I’d be okay,” she said.
Adrionna Harris’ mother, Rachel Harris, was shocked that a student would get suspended for helping out a peer, and she believes that the school system overreached.
“There was not a teacher in sight while this boy is cutting himself,” Harris told Fox. “She felt like it was almost a 9-1-1 situation that she had to help immediately, like there wasn’t time to find a teacher.”
When the Harris’ tried to contact the school, the school refused to return their phone calls or messages until the media got involved. Once contacted by WAVY, the school listened, and after deliberation, decided to push Adrionna Harris’ hearing to consider expulsion up to Thursday instead of the waiting through the 10-day suspension period.
The Harris’ hope to have Adrionna Harris back in class by Friday.
h/t The Blaze
