DELAWARE COUNTY, Pa. -
A 17-year-old Sun Valley High School senior serving a suspension for the last 16 days says his punishment didn't fit the crime.
The student on Thursday night, along with dozens of supporters, plead his case to Penn-Delco School District board members during a school hearing.
Sam Schmucker says he knows he did wrong last month during a rehearsal for the school play "Annie," in which he was slated to play the role of "Daddy Warbucks." When Schmucker says the director of the shows raised his voice and yelled at his girlfriend, who was also in the cast, he took offense and confronted the director physically.
"The way he was talking just didn't seem right to me," Schmucker told FOX 29's Chris O'Connell. "So, I just grabbed him by the jacket and said, 'you can't talk to people like that, it's hurtful.'"
The confrontation earned Schmucker a suspension for the last 16 days and counting. He also lost his part in the musical and was banned from the senior class trip.
But now, the school board wants to expel Schmucker. Board members believe he may be a threat.
Schmucker may not even graduate.
On Thursday night, Schmucker was supposed to have received his second Citizenship Award for his school. The reward was stripped, too.
Now, his fate and the rest of his high school career rests with the school board.
School board members heard testimony in the Thursday hearing that resembled a court case.
Board members are expected to make a decision next week.
UPDATE:
FOX 29 has received a statement from the musical director involved in the incident with suspended Sun Valley High School senior Sam Schmucker. Baxter was hired as a contractor to the school as a director for the musical "Annie." In a statement through Facebook, Baxter says:
"(Sam) grabbed my collar and started spewing f words, cursing me out because I raised my voice to his girlfriend.
She was in the cast, and was having a behavioral issue on stage, and this was the first time in SIX WEEKS, the entire run, that they heard me raise my voice. I had enough of the eye-rolling, attitude, and backtalk, and I told her that I was not having any of it anymore, and this is not how you speak to directors. The student in question's mother was IN THE THEATRE, backstage in the basement working on costumes. Would I be yelling inappropriate things in this case? And from this incident, Sam attacked. And he was not polite or nice, so don't be fooled by that. I never asked for the kid to be suspended or expelled, that's not up to me at all."
Sam Schmucker, who was supposed to play a lead role in his school's production of "Annie," now faces expulsion.
