Marty Roney

Montgomery Advertiser

PRATTVILLE — A family is up in arms after their 16-year-old daughter was expelled from Prattville High School for having a water gun on campus.

The Autauga County Board of Education expelled Sara Allena “Laney” Nichols in February for a year from all schools in the county and she was banned from school property and any extra-curricular activities for the same period. Her mother, Tara Herring, admits she had the water gun on campus, but questions the severity of the punishment.

Superintendent Spence Agee declined to comment for this story, citing BOE policy forbidding comments on any disciplinary actions relating to students.

“She’s 16 and doesn’t know what it means when you hear ‘gun’ on campus,” Herring said. “We admit what she did was wrong. I was hoping this could be a teachable moment for her. We’re not saying she should not have been punished. But she took a 10-day suspension. And then the board expelled her. We feel the expulsion is excessive.”

She said a male classmate handed the toy to her daughter “as a joke.” Herring admits the water pistol was black, and at first glance, it would be easy to think it was a real gun.

“But the second you picked it up, you know its plastic and a toy,” she said. “So we can understand the initial reaction, not knowing it wasn’t a real gun. But after the principal and school officials knew it was a water gun, things should never have progressed this far.”

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The male classmate handed the water gun to Laney in the hall after seventh period on Jan. 27, Herring said. She put it in her backpack and then put it the backseat of her car. The exchange was recorded on the school’s surveillance cameras. The footage showed Laney with the toy, but not the male classmate, Herring said. On Jan. 31, another student went to PHS authorities and told them Laney had a gun.

“The little girl who went to the office was scared to death,” Herring said. “She saw the boy hand Laney the gun on Friday and didn’t know the gun wasn’t real. She did what she was supposed to do, she went to the authorities. They did what they were supposed to do when they were told a gun may be in the school.

“Laney admitted she had the gun and told them it was a water gun and in her car. She and the other boy were silly and made a mistake. But the punishment she received was completely out of line for what happened.”

The family has hired Montgomery attorney Julian McPhillips. McPhillips has written letters to Agee, interim PHS principal Brock Dunn, Alabama State Board of Education member Ella Bell and state BOE attorneys James Ward and Juliana Dean.

“(Laney) was the naïve and unwitting victim of a scheme (for lack of a better word) by several boys to set her up and make her take the fall for a water-gun one of the boys brought to Prattville High School on Friday, January 27, 2017,” his letter dated March 10, to Bell, Ward and Dean reads. “Yet the young man who brought the water — gun to school … escaped without any discipline whatsoever. There were other boys who knew about what was going on, and may have participated in the scheme, yet none of them were disciplined either.”

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McPhillips’ letters name the male student who allegedly brought the water gun to school. The Montgomery Advertiser is not printing his name.

The family wants any reference to the expulsion removed from Laney’s academic records, McPhillips’ letters read.

“Young Sara Allena Nichols now, at the age of only 16, has a “scarlet letter E” attached to her forehead, figuratively speaking, because the EXPULSION now attached to her name will follow her to other schools and quite possibly to job applications,” the March 10 letter to Bell, Ward and Dean reads. “The potential damage for this young lady is enormous … I trust, hope and believe that you three have a great power of persuasion and actual legal authority to convince the Autauga County School Board and its Superintendent to retract the expulsion and change it to “voluntary withdrawal.” After all, that is what my client, Ms. Herring, says actually occurred. She actually withdrew her child from Prattville High School before there was a ruling of expulsion.”

If the expulsion isn’t removed from Laney’s academic record, the family is considering filing legal action, the letter reads.

Complicating matters is the male student who allegedly brought the water gun to school in January brought a water gun to school on April 3, a letter to from McPhillips dated April 10 to Bell, Ward and Dean alleges. Another male student was involved in the second incident, the letter reads. The two male students reportedly received “in-school suspension, not expulsion.” McPhillips’ letter of April 10 reads.

“It has become such a source of insatiable chagrin, seeing her daughter Sara Nichols, innocent of bringing a toy/replica gun to school the first time, and yet receiving a far more serious disciplinary action than those responsible for both occurrence, that Ms. Herring is very seriously considering a Title IV sex discrimination case against Prattville High School,” the April 10 letter reads.

Expulsion letter

Herring doesn’t want it going that far.

“We just want her record and name cleared,” she said.

Things have been rough for the family since the drama began. Laney has been homeschooled since the expulsion. She and her younger sister are seeking acceptance at Autauga Academy.

“Laney has gone to Prattville schools since the second grade,” Herring said. “We had every belief that she would graduate from Prattville High and go on to college. My youngest daughter has been going to Prattville schools since kindergarten. We expected the same thing from her; graduate from Prattville High and then go to college.

“We loved the schools in Prattville. But we have lost all confidence in the school system after this.”