s. Hess said she had packed the bread knife into a box and put the box in the back of Taylor's pick-up. The knife fell out when Taylor was moving the box (Mendoza, 2002, p. 1). Taylor told the principal that he never even knew the knife was in the back of his truck. Still, on Monday morning school security removed Taylor from his class after a guard saw the non-serrated bread knife with a 10-inch blade in the bed of the Taylor's pick-up (Mendoza, 2002, p. 1).
Before this incident, Taylor was an award-winning swimmer who had never been in detention and who worked the summer as a lifeguard. He wanted to take flying lessons, and he had been considering attending college, possibly on a swimming scholarship with a major in aeronautical engineering. Taylor Hess' family appeared to be working- to middle-class. They are Caucasian, and they live in the Hurst-Euless-Bedford school district in Hurst, Texas (Mendoza, 2002, p. 1).
After school officials found the knife, they removed Taylor from his regular classes and placed him in the Tarrant County Juvenile Justice Alternative Education Program. Taylor's fathe
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