AURORA - Lenny Torres' life was turned around in an instant. He was driving with a friend on April 20 when administrators at Eaglecrest High School asked to search his car.
"I didn't think anything of it. I was like, 'The deans want to search my car. That's all right, I guess,'" the Eaglecrest senior said.
They asked to search the car because of the friend Torres was with.
During the search, administrators found two knives. One was small and the other was a larger hunting knife. It's a violation of state law to have a knife that large on school grounds.
"[I was] astounded that that was even still in there. I thought I had taken it out," Torres said. "It had been a year since I had seen it."
Even though he had a clean record, he was suspended and then expelled by the Cherry Creek School District.
"I'm not saying I don't deserve to be suspended. I just don't think I deserved to be expelled," Torres said.
His parents were in disbelief.
"Lenny has been a great son. He's a model student," Patricia Torres, Lenny's mother, said.
"Four years of being in honor roll and honors and AP classes," Lenny Torres said.
The school district says the law does not allow for administrators to consider that.
"The question is that we understand that good students make mistakes, but there are consequences for that. And if we don't enforce those consequences, then we say to others that the rules don't matter," Cherry Creek spokeswoman Tustin Amole said.
That includes if the knife was put in Lenny Torres' car by his father.
"It's kind of family heirloom and, at the time, I was using the van and I put it in the van and forgot about it," Leonard Torres, Lenny's father, said.
The law is not on their side, and Lenny Torres says he feels like he's been stabbed in the back.
"I just want the four years of work that I did to matter and I don't want to be expelled with three weeks left in school," he said.
He is currently appealing the expulsion.
Amole says his disciplinary record will not affect his application to college. She says Torres can still earn his diploma, he just cannot go back to class at Eaglecrest.
His friends have started an online petition and other efforts to try and get him back into school, but the district insists it has to follow state law.
Torres was supposed to take his Advanced Placement tests this week to earn college credit. Since those are being given on campus, Cherry Creek says Torres must make other arrangements to take them.
"I didn't know about the knife. I didn't plan to use the knife. So why should I be expelled for a serious offense when I had no knowledge of the knife. I didn't know it was in my car," Torres said. "I just want to go back to school and graduate."
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