District paying for separate education

BELLEVILLE, Mich., Dec. 5 (UPI) -- A school district in the Detroit suburbs plans to spend thousands of dollars to educate four students facing expulsion separately from classmates.

Officials in the Van Buren district say providing two substitute teachers costs $240 a day or a total of $6,500 through the end of the semester, The Detroit News reported. The teens are being taught in a conference room at Belleville High School with a computer provided to give them access to the Internet.

The four were expelled after school officials discovered pictures posted on a Web site that showed them posing with guns, money and what appeared to be drugs. A judge recently ordered new expulsion hearings.

The teens have filed lawsuits against the district, claiming the expulsions were racially motivated.

"It's a black versus white issue," Woodards said. "It's clear that the members of the board have deep-seated bias that they cannot all of a sudden set aside. These hearings are a sham."