Louisiana’s Attorney General Jeff Landry met with the family of 9-year-old Ka’Mauri Harrison who was suspended earlier this month after his teacher spotted him handling a BB gun during a virtual class session.
In a letter to the Louisiana Department of Education and the Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, Landry voiced his concern that the family was denied a right to appeal the school’s suspension.
Landry says the law grants parents and their child the right to appeal to the School Board and seek a judicial review by the Superintendent when a child faces expulsion.
“Legal action can often be a lengthy process, but I am committed to seeing this through no matter how long it takes,” said AG Landry.
“Today’s letter is just the next of many steps my office and I are taking to seek justice for Ka'Mauri and his family.”
“Ka'Mauri is a bright young man with a great family; and the fact that he was recommended for expulsion, received a suspension, and not given his right to appeal is appalling,” added AG Landry. “Ka’Mauri was not only deprived of educational instruction, he was also denied opportunity.”
“The Harrison family has basically been sent into a bureaucratic abyss for no reason and told there is no way out,” concluded AG Landry. “The ‘adults in the room’ failed Ka'Mauri when they unfairly punished him; I will not let them fail him again.”
