Montana Honor Student Faces Expulsion for Leaving Hunting Rifle in Car While at School

On the morning of Dec.1, Demari DeReu drove to Columbia Falls High School in Montana and parked her blue-green Honda Accord in the lot, just as she does every morning. The 16-year-old honor roll student, class treasurer and varsity cheerleader walked in to school, forgetting entirely about the unloaded hunting rifle locked in the trunk of her car. Later that day, there was an announcement telling students contraband sniffing dogs were scouting the parking lot, sparking her memory. She immediately told administrators that she’d forgotten to remove her scoped hunting rifle from the trunk following a Thanksgiving family hunting excursion. She was suspended from school for violating federal and state gun laws. When reached by phone, Scott DeReu, her father, described his daughter as an avid deer and elk hunter. "She got a couple of deer," he said. "Never an elk...they're tough to find." DeReu’s high school has a zero tolerance policy about guns on campus — in a accordance with both state and federal law — and could lose funding under the terms of the federal Gun Free School Act if the law is not enforced. State criminal law also prevents weapons from being brought into schools and provides for leniency on a case-by-case basis; DeReu did not bring the gun into school, but it was in the school parking lot, which falls under the purviews of the federal law...more