By Cadie Carroll
Tyson Leon, a 16-year-old wrestler at Shakopee High School, and his family were outraged after learning he was suspended indefinitely from school sports due to a tweet he made in late August.
Leon was pulled off a bus on his way to a football scrimmage after school officials read one of Leon’s tweets, which they felt threatened the school.
“Im boutta drill my ‘teammates’ on Monday,” it read, which Leon claimed carried zero intent of threatening anyone and that “drilling” simply meant “tackling.”
The school, however, thought differently, and suspended Leon from participating with both the football and wrestling teams.
Leon and his family brought a suit against the State High School League and its executive director to get him reinstated, which has since been dropped now that Leon is allowed to compete in wrestling again.
Attorney Meg Kane argued wrestling was “his ticket to a Division I college” and that the suspension was a violation of Leon’s Constitutional rights.
Kane went on to claim that the district is “trampling” the “constitutional rights” of many students. “It’s a widespread problem with lots of families complaining about it,” she told reporters. “Nobody wants to go on the record because they’re afraid their children will be retaliated against.”
Attorney for the school district Carla White argued differently, stating the suspension was only meant to keep Leon off the gridiron and wasn’t intended to affect his wrestling eligibility.
Leon has had something of a checkered past. He was first suspended after a verbal altercation with a teacher in December 2011, and again after a fight with another student in July 2012 and for “chemical use” at a party last January.
Leon’s parents, Barb Bainer and Montgomery Leon, says they didn’t appeal those suspensions because they felt their son “needed to do his punishment,” but that this time was different.
The judge ordered school district and league attorneys to draft an agreement for Leon to sign, acknowledging their rules and understanding he must follow them.
“At first they told me I wasn’t ever able to play sports again,” Leon told reporters outside the courtroom. “Then in there they said all I had to do was sign a piece of paper. I was pretty happy about that.”
