A jury in Boston has convicted a former Boston High School student of manslaughter in connection with the 1990 stabbing of a classmate, the first killing inside a public school in the city’s history. (See Education Week, Jan. 9, 1991.)
Robert L. Reynolds had been charged with first-degree murder for the killing of Kingsley Fitzroy Allen, a fellow 9th grader at the school, an alternative work-study school in the city’s South End.
Superior Court Judge Robert Banks sentenced Mr. Reynolds to serve 7 to 15 years in prison for the crime.
Assistant District Attorney Francis O’Meara had urged the judge to impose a prison sentence of 15 to 20 years, charging that Mr. Reynolds had habitually carried knives during school.
The two students had reportedly engaged in a scuffle in a crowded hallway just before the killing took place.
The killing led to the temporary use of doorway metal detectors at the school to check students for weapons.
The Kentucky state school board has suspended a superintendent and one local board member and dropped charges against another board member as it considered the latest charges under the state’s crackdown on local governance.
Ron Hager, the superintendent of the Floyd County school system, was suspended without pay pending a May 11 removal hearing before the state board. The state had charged the administrator with a variety of misconduct charges, including falsifying financial records and mishandling district funds. (See Education Week, March 25, 1992.)
State officials also suspended Coeburn Phillips, a Letcher County school-board member who faced conflict-of-interest charges for doing business with the school district. They set a hearing date for May 5.
The state board dropped charges against a Hart County board member, but criticized his fight with a teacher at a local basketball game. An Elliott County board member who was also brought up on recent charges resigned his seat and will not face the immorality and misconduct charges leveled by the state.
As state officials continue to proceed with enforcement of the governance mandates contained in Kentucky’s 1990 school-reform law, a Harlan County circuit judge is expected to rule this week on whether the state board had the authority to oust three local board members earlier this year. A state-appointed selection committee has recommended three replacements for the ousted board members, but they have not been sworn in pending the judge’s ruling. (See Education Week, March 11, 1992.)
