Mother fights to enroll her daughter in Osceola Co. school

ST. CLOUD, Fla. — An eighth-grade student at St. Cloud Middle School was kicked out for fighting, so she enrolled in online classes.

When she started to do poorly with the virtual courses however, her mother asked that she be put in another school.

The school board declined the request.

Channel 9’s Ryan Hughes learned the girl's mom had 30 days to reenroll her daughter but missed the cutoff date.

The mother went before the Osceola County School Board to fight for her daughter to get back in the classroom.

“I just want for her to succeed,” the mother said. “I’m just asking for another chance for her future.”

Her daughter’s name isn't public record because of confidentially laws.

When the daughter was kicked out of her middle school, she went before a hearing officer and instead of facing expulsion her mother enrolled her in online courses.

The girl was doing poorly in her classes so her mother changed her mind and asked to switch her over to an alternative school, but the cut-off had passed.

“I never thought I'd be faced with a situation where a kid is left out in the cold in what I think is an immoral vote by some of my board members,” said school board member Jay Wheeler.

The family turned to Wheeler and he brought up the issue with other board members, hoping to get them to change the hearing officer's decision at a meeting Tuesday night.

“I think this becomes a very slippery slope. If we do it here then what happens next time?,” said school board Chairman Tim Weisheyer.

Wheeler was the only board member to vote against reassigning two staff members with pay after they were arrested a couple weeks ago for ignoring a classroom brawl.

“It’s OK if you get arrested for child neglect to get a paycheck, but it's not OK for a kid to make a mistake and for the parents to try to right that mistake.  I just have a fundamental problem with that,” Wheeler said.

Wheeler said the family has to find a solution outside the confines of public education, like sending the girl to private school.

The school board has the latitude in this situation to change its final decision.

WFTV