Suspended 'Juggalo' Student Is Allowed Back After Alleged Facebook Threats

A sophomore who was suspended from school without much of an explanation has finally been given an explanation and told she can come back to school – two days earlier than expected.

According to sophomore Desaray Skac and her parents, the day after Patch posted an article about her seven-day suspension without an explanation, a Mt. Hope dean of students reached out to Desaray's mother, Mary Skac, to inform her that Desaray had received an extended suspension due to an ongoing investigation regarding threats allegedly made on Facebook.

Though Desaray denies making the threats and her mother claims she has been monitoring her Facebook since she was suspended, school administrators offered Skac the opportunity to sit down for a reinstatement hearing on Thursday, almost a week earlier than they had previously scheduled one.

According to Desaray's father, Mark Andrade, the family met with members of the administration at 9 a.m. on Thursday. Andrade said that during the meeting, the administration agreed to allow Desaray to return to school on Monday instead of Wednesday. Andrade said the administration also made it clear that Insane Clown Posse memorabilia and the term "Juggalo" would no longer be allowed in school.

Desaray and a group of her friends first got into trouble by showing up to school wearing face paint. The group call themselves Juggalos, in homage to the band Insane Clown Posse.

On Thursday morning, Mt. Hope Principal Donald Rebello said he could not get into specific cases of students, however he admitted that extended suspensions, like Desaray's, are imposed when there is an ongoing investigation.

"An investigation reveals more in-depth aspects of a violation and it takes time sometimes to fully investigate," he said. "We investigate anything that we feel compromises the learning process or safety and security of our school."

Desaray's father has mixed feelings about the outcome of Thursday's hearing. "I’m happy that she can continue on with her school work, but I’m not happy that it seems as though they are using my daughter to set an example for years to come," he said.

Andrade is still bothered by his daughter's treatment by the school.

"I'm definitely glad that she can go back on Monday, but I still feel as though they went about it the wrong way and violated their own rules," Andrade said, noting that officials denied that they had violated any of the suspension guidelines in the student handbook.

Rebello stands behind his belief that the administration "was completely warranted in the action that [they] took."

Andrade said he believes the only reason the school called and gave a reason for Desaray's suspension and allowed the family to have a hearing a week early is because of the reporting on her case.

"If it wasn’t for that article they would have probably delayed us longer," Andrade said, noting that it was not until the article shed light on the issue that they started receiving answers from the administration. "I think it definitely moved things up quicker. It's amazing that it took an interview with the media just to get someone to respond to us."

Rebello urges students and parents to use caution on social media networks like Facebook, and he warns that threats will be taken seriously and investigated.

"Many good parents do monitor their child's social networking," he said. "But parents have the moral obligation to know what their kids are doing inside and outside of school and to keep an eye on it."