Expelled for Possession of a Butter Knife

Oct. 22, 2007 — -- A South Carolina high school freshman has been expelled from school for possession of a butter knife.

Amber Dauge was by all accounts a good student at Goose Creek High School. She had joined the Junior ROTC program and was a member of the school's chorus. But she says officials have overreacted to an honest mistake.

"I know I made a really stupid decision, but I don't think I should be expelled for it," Amber told WCIV-TV, the ABC affiliate in Charleston, which first broke the story.

"She was at home making toast and she looked up, saw the clock, and said, "Oh I'm going to be late," her stepfather, Steven Heinz, explained to ABC News' Law & Justice Unit.

"She ran out the door and locked herself out with the butter knife still in her hand."

"Now, she could have rang the doorbell and got us up and left the butter knife at home," Heinz said.

"And she could have dropped the knife on the porch, I guess. And I guess she could have, when she got to school, walked in and turned it in [school officials] … but she left it in her locker and forgot about it."

Heinz said Amber opened her locker a week later, and the butter knife fell out. A fellow student made a wisecrack about the knife that was overheard by a teacher, who reported it to school officials, according to Heinz.

Amber was immediately suspended for five days, pending an expulsion hearing that officials say was mandatory under by the school's "zero tolerance" policy toward weapons or potential weapons.

"To a certain extent, we were understanding when they called us down and said 'We have to put her on this five-day suspension,'" Heinz said. "At first I thought it was just a scare tactic. 'They want to make an impression' is what I was thinking."

Amber "went into the other room and started crying" when the school contacted her parents to notify them of the suspension and impending expulsion hearing, her stepfather said.

Heinz and his wife, Kristi, Amber's mother, took time off work to attend the expulsion hearing on Oct. 18. On one side of the table was Heinz, his wife and Amber. On the other, Heinz said, were two assistant principals and a Berkeley County Schools District hearing officer.

At the hearing, administrators "read through all the stuff and every one of her teachers had good things to say about her," Heinz said.

Teachers described Amber as "a very sweet girl" who is "pleasant" and "respectful," according to documents provided to ABC News by her family.

Asked whether she ever had any discipline problems at school or had a criminal record, Heinz said that she did not.

"She's never a problem," he said. "She's not one of those kids who you have to struggle with to get out of bed and to school. She gets up before we do. She likes school."