zero tolerance sucks...

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Surprise high-school senior Kim Peters carries an Olympic identification badge and an Arizona skeet-shooting members' card, but neither got her out of a four-day suspension for bringing shotgun shells onto school grounds.

The 17-year-old started competitive clay shooting her freshman year at the urging of her mom and stepfather.

She has since won several trophies in the male-dominated sport and in August was one of 18 athletes across the nation to attend this year's Junior Olympic shooting camp in Colorado Springs, Colo.




But the hobby got Peters into trouble last week. Willow Canyon High School administrators disciplined Peters after a security guard noticed two unopened boxes of the shells sitting in the back seat of the student's white sport utility vehicle. There was no gun.

Peters said her 12-hours-a-week practice schedule got so hectic that she forgot to unload the ammunition from her vehicle as she was running late for school Tuesday morning.

To beat the bell, she said she took a shortcut and parked in a visitors-only lot closest to the school. The guard spotted the shells while ticketing her for parking in the non-student area.

Now, Peters fears the resulting punishment will cloud her permanent record as she applies to colleges. Her family is fighting the Dysart Unified School District to get the offense, possession of a "dangerous instrument," expunged.

Administrators stand by their decision and rejected the family's first appeal last week.

"We can never comment on a specific situation with a student (due to privacy laws), but what I can say is that whenever we are dealing with any infraction . . . our duties involve keeping students in a safe and secure environment," Dysart Superintendent Gail Pletnick said.

Peters called her own actions "careless" but said she doesn't feel the punishment fits the crime.

"They searched me and they searched my car," she said.

Searchers discovered that Peters had cigarettes in the car, an offense also punishable by suspension. Though Peters technically violated three school rules, she was punished only for the shells, according to a Dysart disciplinary-incident form sent home with Peters.

Arguing that Peters proved she regularly uses the shells for sport, her father, Tony, asked administrators to swap the ammunition offense for the cigarette offense. Tony said he felt anyone requesting his daughter's behavior records might be more sympathetic to a "tobacco" violation vs. a "dangerous instrument" violation. He said he feels the latter unfairly implies that his daughter brought a gun or bomb into the school building. When officials refused to make the swap, Tony accused the district of overreacting and trying to make an inappropriate example out of his daughter.

The Peterses also cite a 2007 federal education statute that explicitly excludes shotguns and shotgun shells from being categorized as a destructive device because they are primarily used for sport. Despite the statute, districts are free to take disciplinary actions where they see fit, according to the Arizona Department of Education.

Pletnick said that school shootings at Columbine High School and Virginia Tech have forced school districts everywhere to re-evaluate and tighten their safety standards.

Peters said she is still trying to drum up support for her position and has started by contacting some of her target-shooting mentors.

Zach Snow, a promotions coordinator with the National Shooting Sports Foundation, said other athletes have reported similar complaints in the past, prompting professional shooters and the National Rifle Association to come to their defense.

He said the most notable case was when a group of students was sent home for wearing foundation T-shirts, which pictured a silhouette of a shooter holding a rifle. But Snow said to his knowledge, Peters' situation is the first of its kind.

She is scheduled to return to school Tuesday.