AURORA, Colo.—A 17-year-old drill team commander for the Young Marines will be allowed to return to school next week after she was barred from classes for having the team’s mock rifles in her SUV in the school parking lot.
Cherry Creek School District Superintendent Mary Chesley ruled Friday that Marie Morrow could return to Cherokee Trail High School on Wednesday, the next time school is in session.
Her first day in class won’t be until Feb. 20 because she will be on a previously planned trip to New York state.
She was suspended Feb. 5.
“This has been a tiring experience,” Morrow said. “I’m glad to go back and be a regular kid.”
Morrow is a senior with a 3.5 grade-point average and takes advanced placement classes. She had the mock rifles because for drill team practice after school.
She hopes to attend the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy and belongs to the Young Marines, a youth program of the Marine Corps League, an organization of current and former Marines.
Chesley said she had no choice but to expel Morrow under a state “zero-tolerance” law governing firearms and facsimiles on school property, but that the law gave her discretion on the length of the expulsion.
Chesley decided to expel Morrow for the period she had already been suspended, which was six days.
“I do not believe that the circumstances of this situation warrant the severe calendar year penalty that legislators intended when this statute was enacted,” Chesley said.
State Sen. Kevin Lundberg, R-Berthoud, has said he plans to introduce legislation to exempt facsimile weapons from the zero-tolerance law.
