Local students suspended for walking along unpatrolled roads About a dozen students at Francis Junior High School were suspended for three days for walking home on off-limits streets, The Washington Post reported Thursday.
An attorney representing one of the students is protesting the suspensions and calling them unconstitutional. School officials said the suspensions are legal because students are under their jurisdiction from the time they leave home until they return home.
The school principal, Courtney L. Fletcher, forbade students to walk home along N and O streets between 24th Street NW and Dupont Circle about two years ago, after neighbors complained of vandalism.
The suspended students were walking on the prohibited streets, but not vandalizing property, when a police officer stopped them and sent them back to the school.
Students are told every day to walk along P Street after school, where school officials and police watch the students and make sure they are behaving. According to the principal, students have been suspended in the past for violating this rule.
