EL CAJON, Calif. — The Cajon Valley School Board has voted against the expulsion of a twelve-year-old girl who posted a screenshot of a fight she was in on Snapchat.
CBS 8 first reported on seventh-grade Kyra and her father Scott Ludwig's fight against Cajon Valley Union School District and its push to kick her out of school.
On Tuesday evening, the Cajon Valley School Board voted 4-0 against Kyra's expulsion. The board voted against its recommendation to expel Kyra, under the terms that she doesn't commit any offenses worthy of suspension or expulsion under the student code of conduct.
Kyra will be allowed to return to school and her record will be expunged after probation.
Scott Ludwig, Kyra's father, reacted to the vote following Tuesday's school board meeting.
"It's solace that my daughter finally gets to go back to school and see her friends. The issue that I have, though, is the fact that they violated her First Amendment right to begin with, and I'm still going to be seeking legal action against the district for that violation," Ludwig said.
Ludwig said his daughter Kyra was emotional after the school board voted against her expulsion.
"She was super excited. She had tears in her eyes. But she was she just wanted to be with her friends. I asked her if she wanted to talk. She said no, she just wants to go celebrate," he said.
Cajon Valley Union School District Superintendent David Miyashiro said in a statement to CBS 8,
"Due to student privacy laws I won't comment on the substance of this matter. I will say that in all student expulsion cases, The Board takes into consideration the well-being of all involved students with the goal of keeping students in an educational setting where they can thrive with appropriate safeguards, whenever possible. Clearly, The Board took this matter seriously. I hope that all persons involved can move forward and that the involved students will be successful here in Cajon Valley."
The push to kick Kyra out of school is the most recent example in San Diego County and across the nation over a student's use of social media while they are off-campus. It is an issue that has landed in the Supreme Court and courtrooms across the country.
The Snapchat poll
For Kyra, her decision to post a "Snap" happened in December 2023 while she was on winter break.
The Snapchat post was the culmination of several months of issues Kyra had experienced with another student, who she says was bullying her and some of her friends.
In late October, Kyra went to school administrators about what she said were threats from the other student.
Those alleged threats soon escalated. On December 4, 2023, Kyra and the student got into a fight at Los Coches Creek Middle School.
Students at school that day recorded the December 4, 2023, fight between the two students, and a video of it was posted on social media sites and shared throughout the school.
Kyra and the other student were suspended for two days. Kyra then agreed to sign a stay-away order.
Fast forward nearly one month when Kyra says the social media app prompted her to post her favorite memory for 2023.
"Beating her ass was the best part of my year," Kyra wrote followed by three smiley-face emojis. The post appeared underneath a grainy screenshot of the fight that a student had recorded.
On March 1, Kyra, represented by her father, Scott, appeared before an administrative panel comprised of Cajon Valley Union principals, Roberta Ewing, Joy Delgallego, and Brian Handley to plead their case and get Kyra back to school.
CBS 8 attended the March 1 hearing and heard testimony from district representatives, Los Coches Creek Middle School principal, Peter Chodzko, and Kyra. During the hearing, principal Chodzko testified that Kyra showed a pattern of poor behavior at school, including dress code complaints from staff and Kyra's refusal to follow orders, as well as other instances where teachers could see Kyra's cell phone in her pants pocket.
However, it was the December 27 post on Snapchat that administrators say was the final straw.
On March 6, Delgallego, Ewing, and Handley voted in favor of expelling Kyra.
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