By Rebecca Gaunt
More than two-and-a-half years after the incident that resulted in a North Cobb High School student being expelled, the Georgia Court of Appeals vacated the Superior Court’s decision to uphold the Cobb County Board of Education’s ruling.
North Cobb High School resource officer Nina Daniels and athletic director Matt Williams confronted K.B., as he is referred to in court documents, in an off-campus parking lot on Aug. 25, 2023. He was accused of driving recklessly in the school zone.
After he backed into his rented spot at a barber shop, Daniels and Williams appeared in front of him, with her car partially blocking him in. According to court documents, the SRO and AD accused the student of driving recklessly in the school zone. They jumped into the SRO’s vehicle and followed him.
K.B., who was then 16, refused to roll down his window at her request and maneuvered his Dodge Charger out of the spot, leaving the scene. He then had a friend pick him up and take him to school, where he was told by the two staff members that he had hit the officer. She did not sustain any injuries.
During the Nov. 27, 2023 discipline hearing, K.B.’s attorney questioned Daniels about the lack of body cam footage from the morning incident. She said she couldn’t recall if she had pushed the button to activate it, but it hadn’t worked. It was activated by the time K.B. arrived at school.
According to the discipline hearing transcript, K.B. said he didn’t open his window because Daniels had her hand on her gun and he was scared. In audio from the body cam taken when K.B. arrived at school later, Daniels can be heard telling K.B. he was “lucky I stepped away because most rookie officers would’ve stepped in front of that car and shot you on the spot.”
Read more: Legal battle continues for expelled student to return to Cobb County school – Cobb Courier
K.B. has been represented by attorneys with the Southern Poverty Law Center for the appeal process.
In July 2024, they successfully appealed the expulsion with the state board of education, which ruled that the district overstepped its authority. The Cobb County School District filed an appeal to reinstate the expulsion and a motion to prevent him returning for the 2024-2025 school year. The Superior Court upheld the expulsion, which the Court of Appeals has now overturned.
From the Southern Poverty Law Center’s press release:
The Southern Poverty Law Center’s (SPLC) client, K.B., is a Black student with a disability who received a two-year expulsion in 2023 for allegedly violating the Cobb County School District’s (CCSD) sweeping off-campus conduct policy.
In March 2025, the SPLC contested the action and K.B.’s expulsion before the Georgia State Board of Education, which ruled that the policy — prohibiting students from engaging in a broad array of off-campus behavior — was an unlawful overreach of CCSD’s authority. After the State Board’s decision, K.B. planned to re-enroll in his regular school for his junior year. However, two days before school started, CCSD appealed the State Board’s ruling to the Cobb County Superior Court, asserting it has unlimited discretion to expel students for off-campus behavior. When the Superior Court affirmed the district’s decision without addressing the limits of its authority over students’ off-campus conduct, the SPLC appealed to the Georgia Court of Appeals.
“For over two years, the CCSD has wasted countless taxpayer dollars in its relentless fight to keep K.B. out of school,” said Claire Sherburne, senior staff attorney, SPLC. “Although it’s not over yet, the SPLC is thankful that the Georgia Court of Appeals rejected CCSD’s position that school districts have unfettered authority over student behavior that occurs off campus and outside of school. School districts cannot be allowed sweeping authority to reach beyond the schoolhouse gate and into students’ homes and communities to punish them.”
Rejecting CCSD’s ongoing defense of K.B.’s expulsion, the Court of Appeals vacated the Superior Court’s decision and instructed the Superior Court to consider the question it ignored: What are the outer bounds of a school district’s authority to expel students for their off-campus conduct?
“This fight has worn my child down,” said K.B.’s mom. “He’s missed his childhood. There are no basketball games, no Friday night lights, no senior prom. He missed all that. He has told me, ‘I’m going to be a nothing.’ No kid should ever say that. When I told K.B. about this decision though, I saw a smile.”
The Cobb County School District continues to refer nearly 700 students for expulsion every year. Marginalized students lose tens of thousands of days of educational instruction due to this unlawful policy and many other disciplinary policies. Black students make up nearly 53% of those receiving disciplinary action, while only composing 33% of the student population. Students with disabilities account for about 13% of the student population but make up 28% of those receiving discipline.
“Cobb County students already lose tens of thousands of days of classroom instruction every year because of the district’s unlawful suspensions and expulsions. This number would only increase if school districts had free reign over off-campus conduct. And it’s not just those students that suffer the consequences — it is all of us,” said Sherburne.
Rebecca Gaunt earned a degree in journalism from the University of Georgia and a master’s degree in education from Oglethorpe University. After teaching elementary school for several years, she returned to writing. She lives in Marietta with her husband, son, two cats, and a dog. In her spare time, she loves to read, binge Netflix and travel.
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