Family sues after Broughton High student is expelled for having gun near campus
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Broughton High expelled a student after police found him with a loaded gun nearby.
- Family sued Wake Schools, saying expulsion denied the student due process rights.
- Wake offered virtual instruction after six months; student may reapply in October.
Rumors and reports of guns in and around Broughton High School brought the historic Raleigh campus to a standstill right before Halloween.
A Broughton freshman was found with a loaded handgun near campus on Oct. 28, triggering an increased police presence that day as well as on Oct. 29, when a false report of an active shooter sent the school into a lockdown. School leaders say a message needs to be sent by taking the rare step of expelling the freshman who had the gun.
“We cannot afford to begin making exceptions for these infractions or we compromise the very fabric of our schools and the immense steps we are all taking to provide safe secure environments for all of our children so they do not have to fear a loaded firearm while they’re on campus,” Broughton Principal Janiece Dilts said at a November school hearing.
Details about student disciplinary action are generally not public record. But the family of the Raleigh student filed a lawsuit in Wake County Superior Court in June to try to overturn the expulsion. The student is referred to as J.S. in court documents.
The expulsion could have lasting negative impacts on the 17-year-old’s future, according to Carlton Powell, the family’s attorney and director of Legal Aid of North Carolina’s Right To Education Project.
“You can have your feelings about bringing guns to school,” Powell said in an interview. “Nobody wants that. That’s terrifying. But should you indefinitely remove them from having any chance of having an education — and that’s what an expulsion can mean. The answer should be no.”
Students arrested off campus
Located on St. Mary’s Street near what’s now called the Village District, Broughton is Raleigh’s oldest high school. It opened in 1929 and still serves some of Raleigh’s most affluent neighborhoods as well as some low-income communities.
According to his suspension notice, Raleigh police detained J.S. and two other students behind Peace Street Market, which is just across from Broughton. They had left campus without permission on Oct. 28 around 10:30 a.m.
According to police, J.S. was in possession of a loaded firearm. He tried to run from police and was taken to the hospital. J.S. said at a school hearing that he ran because he was scared.
According to court documents, the other students told police and school officials they had gone to the market to buy and smoke marijuana. The other students said J.S. took the gun out of his backpack at the market to show it off. They also said that J.S. told them he had the gun on campus.
Extra police were at Broughton for two days. Student attendance dropped as some parents kept their children home.
“This incident caused the police presence,” school attorney Maya Weinstein told a school board appeal panel. “It caused media response. Ms. Diltz was fielding many, many concerned parent phone calls, concerned staff members. It had a really big impact on their community, and it continues to.”
Did student have gun on campus?
Weinstein said it was “more likely than not” that J.S. had the gun on campus even though it wasn’t seen there by authorities. Possession of a gun on a school campus is an automatic 365-day suspension under North Carolina law.
At the November school hearing, J.S. said he had found the gun two days earlier but declined to provide further details due to pending court hearings. The family has denied that J.S. had the gun at Broughton and told school officials he was not charged with having a gun on campus.
The family declined The News & Observer’s request for details on the outcome of the juvenile court proceedings, which are not public records.
Powell said Wake had not met the burden of proof to show that J.S. had the gun on campus. Powell also accused Wake of denying his client his due process rights by not giving them the option of cross-examining the other students.
The school district declined The N&O’s request for comment on the lawsuit. But Weinstein called the family’s allegations of violation of due process “meritless” in court documents.
School expulsions are rare
Dilts, the principal, suspended J.S. for 10 days and recommended a long-term suspension and expulsion even though she had developed a close relationship with the student.
“This was the hardest decision I have had to make as a principal,” Diltz told a school board panel. “But I have an obligation, and I honestly feel the Board has an obligation, to consider all students at Broughton High School.”
In November, a district administrative panel recommended a long-term suspension of 365 days and expulsion. Wake County Superintendent Robert Taylor backed the recommendation.
In April, a school board appeal panel upheld the 365-day suspension and expulsion. The one change the board made was to begin offering virtual instruction to J.S. while he completes the long-term suspension. He received no schooling from Wake for six months.
J.S. can reapply for readmission in October. But approval is not guaranteed.
Expulsion is the most severe penalty a school can impose. Only two Wake County students and 30 students statewide were expelled during the 2023-24 school year, the latest year for which data is available.
Is the student a ‘clear threat of danger’?
Schools can expel students if they present “a clear threat of danger to self or others.”
During the April board hearing, Weinstein accused J.S. of having “a pretty recent history of physically aggressive behaviors on campus” that she said was increasing in severity. According to Weinstein, the other students said J.S. had told them he had the gun for protection.
Powell said J.S. had been involved in “some fights” at Broughton But Powell blamed most of the fights on J.S. defending a “mouthy friend” that he no longer associates with.
“I understand the threat here, but the threat has passed,” Powell told board members. “He is not a threat. ... Even if you believe he had the gun on campus, he will not do it again. I don’t know if he’ll pick up a gun again.”
But Diltz told both district panels that she can’t trust that the October incident will be a one-off.
“If our school system begins allowing students to possess loaded firearms while they are on campus during the school day, we begin normalizing firearms for our schools, which could be very dangerous,” Diltz told the panel in November.
Family asks for virtual education option
The family isn’t asking Wake to necessarily return J.S. to Broughton. They say Wake could offer virtual education instead of expulsion.
“In our society, I don’t quite see why there would be good reason to indefinitely exclude any kid from school when we have the technology to teach them from any setting in the world,” Powell said in an interview. “If we believe in the promise of children and their future and we don’t want to write them off and don’t want them to carry forever the stigma that they’re expelled from school, we should care.”
Weinstein told board members that online education wasn’t recommended because there could still be the potential of a threat from J.S. interacting with staff.
But Powell said expulsion is an overreaction to the actions of someone who is still a child. He was 16 when the incident happened.
“Children are children,” Powell said. “They’re going to make mistakes. Should we deny them an education because they’re children, for the things that make them children?”
This story was originally published July 18, 2025 at 7:00 AM.
