Expulsion upheld for Bellevue student who protested school's handling of abuse complaint

After a hearing Monday evening, a civil hearing officer ruled against an appeal brought forward by Alex Su, a 17-year-old Newport High School senior who was emergency expelled in late November, after hundreds at the school walked out of class in protest.

An emergency expulsion meant Su was immediately banned from campus for 10 school days. She returned to school this week.

There were minimal breaks during the more than 10-hour virtual hearing, which was publicly broadcast in a Microsoft Teams meeting. At one point in the evening, Su asked if she could eat.

It wasn’t a legal proceeding, but there were elements that replicated courtroom conduct. Lawyers took turns questioning witnesses, school leaders present the day of the protest. The hearing officer acted as a judge — a “neutral third-party” who would decide whether to grant Su’s appeal.

They dissected Su’s conduct that day, and whether she had been one of the students to allegedly slam post-it notes with scribbled messages on the windows of the main office, use profanity on a megaphone, or beckon students to the walkout.

RELATED: 3 Bellevue students say they told school leaders about abuse, sexual misconduct, but response was lacking

As described by the hearing officer, the scope of the hearing was whether Alex Su’s actions “caused a material and substantial disruption to the educational process to the degree that the student’s conduct warranted an emergency expulsion.”

Su was notified early Tuesday that her emergency expulsion would not be removed from her school record, and that colleges reviewing her application for attendance would see it. She said she was removed from the class and the after-school club she shared with the student she accused of abuse, because he felt “threatened.”

“I think it's really interesting that he got that privilege hours after he requested it and I've been working on it for months and I haven't gotten it,” she said.

A spokesperson with the Bellevue School District said they had no comment, as the district does not remark on the status of an individual student.

The protest came after tension had been building. Alex Su said her ex-boyfriend and classmate had emotionally and physically harmed her. Su said she felt anxious near him, and it made learning impossible. After she told an assistant principal, she went weeks waiting for results, she said, so she began posting her story on Instagram.

When Newport High School leadership saw Su’s social media post, they asked her to remove it because it made the student she had accused feel unsafe, she said they told her.

As KUOW reported previously, the protest was in support of Su, and other students who said they had been abused, sexually assaulted, or harassed, sometimes in Bellevue schools. The students protesting said school leadership wasn’t doing enough to protect students or hold the people they accused accountable.

Following the protest, in an email to parents, Principal Dion Yahoudy wrote that Newport students broke district rules on protesting. District policy says students may meet on school grounds, however, they’re only allowed to hold “peaceful” demonstrations in designated areas and times that do not “disrupt classes or other school activities.”

“A lot of people think that I wanted a revolution, or a whole movement, and I do, I do want that now, and I do support this movement,” Su said. “But in the very beginning, I just wanted him out of my class, and I don't think that was a lot to ask for.

“The only reason it's gotten this far is because they refused to give me this one request that they gave him the second that he asked for it.”

Su said she plans to appeal the decision a second time.