Request for TRO over expulsion is denied

LISBON -- A judge has denied a request for a temporary restraining order to block the expulsion of a Leetonia High School student.
Judge C. Ashley Pike of Columbiana County Common Pleas Court wrote in an entry released this week that it was unlikely that the student and family would win on the merits of the case.
Dennis Kyser, through his mother, Laurie Kyser of Ridge Street, Leetonia, contended that the district violated its policies and state law.
The lawsuit said the 17-year-old was accused of having a pair of brass knuckles at a girls basketball game at the district's complex on Jan. 9, even though no such item was found on him.
The youth was suspended for 10 days on March 13. On March 23, the boy was expelled for the rest of the school year.
Laurie Kyser contended the board's policies call for either suspension or expulsion, not both.
She also said she received the notice of the expulsion hearing on March 14. She said in the lawsuit that state law required the district to have a hearing within three to five days after it sent its hearing notice, so the expulsion hearing would have had to have been held by March 19.