School Board still has to back Coburn

BY KYLE BARNETT

Staff Reporter

RESERVE- East St. John High terrorizing suspect, Jared Ranallo, has been recommended for expulsion for the remainder of the school year according to Superintendent of St. John the Baptist Public Schools Michael Coburn.

The recommendation came after an in-school hearing presided over by Supervisor of Child Welfare and Attendance Robert Schaff.

Before Ranallo is expelled, he will have to face a hearing with the St. John School Board. That hearing would be at the next School Board meeting on January 17, unless a special meeting is called before then.

“The evidence will have to be overwhelming that he was in fact a threat to the school,” said School Board President Gerald Keller.

If expelled, Coburn said the school system is required to offer Ranallo an alternate school. Oddly enough, the school Coburn has suggested for Ranallo to attend will be the same one he was expelled from, East St. John High.

However, Ranallo would be schooled in an on-site trailer in what the school spokesperson Ann LaBorde is calling “in-school expulsion.”

“They are excluded from the regular workings of the school just as though they were in some other place,” said LaBorde.

Given this course of action, Ranallo should not be academically affected by the expulsion.

The recommendation for expulsion comes as a response to a computer generated image posted by Ranallo on popular social networking website, MySpace. The image was a cartoon of East St. John High with flames pouring out of it.

Criminal charges for terrorizing are still pending against Ranallo. His arraignment has been set for February.

The Ranallo family declined to comment on this report.