School Punishment Causes Controversy

Classmates Call Him 'Cage Boy', 'Monkey Boy'

MONONGAHELA, Pa., Updated 4:28 p.m. EDT June 6, 2000 --

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Student Faces Disciplinary Action. Grandmother Takes Picture Of Grandson.

A 14-year-old middle school student was forced to sit behind a wooden partition for an entire school day while serving an in-school suspension.

The child, Jimmy Meyers, alleges that the partition resembled a cage.

Meyers, who attends Finley Middle School in the Ringgold School District, told his grandmother about the punishment, she went to the school to see if his story was true, WTAE-TV reports.

June Meyers, Jimmy's legal guardian, took pictures of where he had to serve his punishment.

Finley Middle School Principal Alan Veliky said that the picture looks worse than it really was.

"I'm telling you, either the boy pulled it around him or the grandmother pulled it around him to take the picture," Veliky said.

In the wake of the incident, the school district decided that public punishments will no longer be tolerated as school policy.

Meyers said that Jimmy will not return to Finley.

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