Mother of Dishonored Honor Student Gets Apology
Student Named Student of the Month

By Hazel Trice Edney
NNPA Washington Correspondent

WASHINGTON (NNPA)-The mother of a Virginia Black honor student, who was prosecuted for taking a purse to lost and found with the cash, checks, a credit card and a check card still intact, has received a holiday apology.

Corbin Adamson, the teacher whose purse Lance Holmes took to lost and found after finding it under her desk, approached his mother, Aurelia, during a Christmas open house at the school Dec. 14, the mother says.

" 'I'm sorry about what happened to Lance. He's a great kid and I had nothing to do with it. Happy Holidays,'" says Holmes, who teaches high school algebra, quoting Adamson.

Because of the incident, Lance, 12, and an eighth-grade perfect attendance student at the predominately White Short Pump Middle School in Henrico County, Va., was given three days of in-school suspension, found guilty of petty larceny in the Henrico Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court and sentenced to a school to reform convicted shoplifters.

Lance said that he didn't realize the purse was his teacher's. He also says that he asked the teacher whether the purse was hers and she said, "no," and gave him permission to take it to the school's lost and found department. Adamson said she did not recall that conversation.

The case was dismissed on appeal Nov. 7, after Holmes hired State Sen. Henry L. Marsh III to represent the family. Marsh argued that there was no evidence of intent to steal and had three White students in court ready to corroborate Lance's story.

Marsh says he could not imagine "any other reason" for the incident except racial stereotyping.

School officials have refused to comment on the case, citing privacy policies.

On top of the apology to his mother, the 12-year-old said he also has received word that he has been named November student of the month for his eighth-grade class.

"They took my picture and everything," he says. "I was happy because I've never been student of the month before." He got five A's and three B's as final grades for the last school year, but he says he's doing much better this session. "Most of my B's have gone up to A's now."

Lance's mother said she still is contemplating filing a lawsuit against the school, if for no other reason than to win back her attorney's fees. She said the student of the month designation was probably "their way of saying we made a mistake."