STATE OF FLORIDA

DIVISION OF ADMINISTRATIVE HEARINGS

SCHOOL BOARD OF LEE COUNTY, ) FLORIDA, )

)

Petitioner, )

)

vs. ) CASE NO. 75-1944

)

KENNETH GIVENS, )

)

Respondent. )

)

RECOMMENDED ORDER

Pursuant to notice, the Division of Administrative Hearings, by its duly designated hearing officer, K. N. Ayers, held a public hearing in the above styled cause on December 17, 1975, at Fort Myers, Florida.

APPEARANCES

For Petitioner: Harry Blair, Esquire

Post Office Box 1467

Fort Myers, Florida 33902

For Respondent: Kenneth Givens testified in his own behalf.

By this Petition, the School administration of Lee County, Florida, seeks to expel Kenneth Givens on charges that on November 4, 1975, while a student at Riverdale High School, he engaged in fighting with another student, and he has a history of continuing misconduct.

On November 4, 1975, Givens participated in the melee in the commons at Riverdale High School. He was involved with one or two other students who had chased him outside the commons area. Subsequent thereto, upon returning to the school after the melee had subsided, Givens went into another class and saw who he thought to be one of the boys with whom he had earlier engaged in an altercation, went over to him and without provocation or notice, struck him in the face. The assaulted student was subsequently found to have received a broken nose. When taken to the dean's office, or to the principal's office, Givens admitted that he had entered into the class and hit a Richard Whiddon, who he had mistaken for the person who had been involved in the earlier fight with him.

Kenneth Givens, testifying in his own behalf, stated that the man whose nose he broke he mistakenly thought was the one who had earlier chased him and had been fighting with him. When the teacher told him to stop after he had hit the man, he did.

In the last two and a half years Givens has had 13 referrals for disciplinary action including excessive tardiness, contemptuous attitude, elbowing students in the hallways, refusing to go to class, fighting, missing

classes, etc. He has been a continual disciplinary problem to the principal and teachers in the school. Givens is one of the black students at Riverdale High School who looks at things in terms of race. He would feel compelled to assist almost any black student involved in a fight with a white student. So long as he retains this attitude he will continue to be a problem at Riverdale High School, or any other high school which he may attend. His record strongly militates against further mollycoddling or allowing him to remain in Riverdale High School.

From the foregoing it is concluded that Kenneth Givens is guilty as alleged. It is therefore,

RECOMMENDED that Kenneth Givens be expelled from Riverdale High School. DONE and ENTERED this 24th day of December, 1975, in Tallahassee, Florida.

K. N. AYERS Hearing Officer

Division of Administrative Hearings Room 530, Carlton Building Tallahassee, Florida 32304

(904) 488-9675

Filed with the Clerk of the Division of Administrative Hearings this 24th day of December, 1975.

COPIES FURNISHED:

Harry Blair, Esquire Post Office Box 67

Fort Myers, Florida 33902

Mr. Willie Givens, and Kenneth Givens

3701 Sabal Palm Boulevard Apartment 58

Fort Myers, Florida 33901

Docket for Case No: 75-001944

Orders for Case No: 75-001944