Lansing Doubles Down: Still No Policy, Still No Accountability
- Freedmen Nation
- 5 days ago
- 2 min read
When we last reported on the Lansing School District’s treatment of an 11-year-old student who disarmed a firearm, the district had already admitted that no policy exists on how to handle students who intervene in weapons threats.
Now, they’ve responded to our FOIA appeal — and they’ve doubled down.
Their answer?
Not only do they still claim no records exist, but they now refuse to even process our appeal — claiming we used “different wording.”
No New Information. No Acknowledgment. No Leadership.
Rather than taking this opportunity to correct or clarify the harm already done to this student, the district’s legal office leaned further into evasion.
They refused to confirm:
Whether a disciplinary hearing ever occurred.
Whether alternative education was offered.
Whether any administrative record-keeping exists at all.
Instead, they claimed that asking for basic answers — like whether any process took place — somehow made the appeal invalid.
This isn’t transparency. It’s procedural stonewalling.
Policy-Free Punishment Is Still Punishment
To this day, the district has provided no rule, no standard, no framework that explains why a child who removed a firearm from another student was suspended and expelled.
No one has denied that the child disarmed a threat.
No one has claimed a better outcome would have occurred by doing nothing.
And no one has explained why the student faced punishment for a situation no policy addresses.
Lansing’s actions amount to this:
Punish first. Justify never.
We Will Continue to Press for Answers
Let it be known — we did everything required under Michigan law to ask for the truth. The district responded by:
Admitting no policy exists.
Refusing to explain their decision.
Avoiding their responsibility to clarify the facts.
We are not walking away.
We will continue documenting, publishing, and pressing for answers — until this student’s story is not ignored, and this pattern of failure is brought into the light.
Support the Work
If you believe no child should be punished for preventing a tragedy, and that public institutions must be held accountable for decisions that shape young lives.
Comments