The Brandywine School District is facing a lawsuit stemming from the mistaken identity of a high school student for an alleged drug dealer.
The incident occurred at the beginning of last year when Joseph Wahl was mistaken for the dealer and was suspended after a search of his backpack found two credit-card knives.
The Wilmington News Journal reports that the school refused to remove the suspension which led to his father filing a lawsuit alleging an unconstitutional search and seizure under the Fourth Amendment.
As for the credit knives court documents say that they were from the student’s eBay inventory and that Joseph had forgotten about them being in the backpack.
The school counters that such knives are not allowed even in such places as a courthouse or the airport.
As for the search the lawsuit charges that Joseph was not even told why his backpack was being searched.
