School Board That Expelled Kissing Teens Says There Is More To It

The school board that expelled Blythewood High School junior Dominique Goyner and his unnamed girlfriend for kissing on a school bus is now coming out, saying that there is more to this than meets the eye but cannot release that information due to “legal reasons.”

Granted, there is always more to any story but the board members of Richland School District Two, in Columbia, S.C., did not handle the situation well at all. The board should have made it perfectly clear that from day one that there was another side to this story and that because of legal reasons, the situation could not be discussed. The school board would have saved itself a lot of headaches if it did that.

The Charlotte State reported that the officials stated that the kissing “… episode that resulted in the expulsion went beyond acceptable social norms.” If this is true, it certainly flies in the face of Jody Free, Goyner’s mother, who told the Associated Press that she saw the video recording of the “session” and said the two teens only kissed.

Sadly, because multiple parties are not willing to give full accounts of what actually happened on that fateful day last October, one is forced to speculate that the school board showed Free the video tape. So, either Free is lying about what she really saw on the bus’ video tape so she can help her son or the school board members saw something that they thought was inappropriate to them but not to Free. Or the other scenario is the school board members showed an edited, G-rated version to Free. Sure, that does not make any sense but at the moment, the whole affair does not make any sense at all either.

And it would be extremely helpful if we could hear the unnamed girlfriend’s side of the story in all of this. Or maybe the reporters could do some legwork and just interview the bus driver or the kids on the bus about what they saw. Since this whole affair is becoming a typical gossip mill found in any high school hallway between Goyner and the school board, reporters might as well get as much of the facts out as possible.

While many have found it hard to believe that the school board expelled two teens for kissing and insist that there is more to this story, they seem to be correct. But lately, school officials are making very stupid judgment calls.

After all, in today’s society we have teachers pretending to be hooded gunmen during class field trips and students getting detention for hugging, it truly does seem possible that a school board would allow such a ridiculous punishment to take place.