Last week, the 81st Texas Legislature sent to Governor Rick Perry’s desk for ratification House Bill 171, which all but eliminates the hotly debated “zero tolerance” policy that chained Harmeier to a felony charge when he was only 10 years old.

On Oct. 25, 2006, on a dare, Harmeier pulled the cover off a hallway fire alarm at Beckendorf Intermediate School. According to Casey’s father, Frank, the alarm only went off after a teacher tried to lock the case back into place.

What would follow for the next three years would be a situation unlike any the Harmeier’s could ever possibly imagine. Casey was arrested for making “terroristic threats,” and charged with a third degree felony.

He would spend three weeks in a Tomball ISD alternative school and was faced with the choice of subjecting himself to random drug testing and counseling if he were to accept a plea deal; all of this for a student who, Frank says, had only been in his principal’s office twice in his life, both times to receive awards.

After countless, and fruitless meetings with Tomball ISD administrators, who Harmeier claims refused to budge and admit any wrongdoing, and hours of court testimony, the case against Casey was eventually dropped.

But the Harmeiers’ fight was only beginning. Frank promised his wife, Jennifer, they would see the issue through to the end.

“I remember the night that it happened, Jennifer said ‘you’ve got to fix this,’” Frank said. “Not just for our son. There are a lot of kids out there who don’t have the ability to do this.”

So in March of 2007, the Harmeiers took what would be the first of many trips to the state capital to address Texas lawmakers in hopes of influencing them to scrap the state’s “zero tolerance” policy for school districts.

Casey said he took it upon himself to work for his siblings and other kids who may face a similar situation as he did.

“I just want to make sure my brother and sister and other kids, that this would not happen to them,” he said.

HB 171 states that school districts when determining punishment for wrongdoing must now take into account “intent or lack of intent,” as well as “a student’s disciplinary history.”

Frank pleaded with school district administrators to consider his son’s past history after the fire alarm incident, but he said they wouldn’t budge, claiming they had to follow written rules and codes of conduct.

The rules and laws they were claiming to follow, Frank says, did not apply to his son’s case.

Jennifer said conventional attitudes on who to believe became reversed.

“If your kid’s got an issue, you’re inclined to believe the adult,” she said. “But you can’t always believe the adult just because they’re an adult.”

The Harmeier’s just recently were successful in sealing their son’s record of the felony charge, but are still waiting for the school district to accept some kind of responsibility.

“As much as they were trying to use their position and authority, it would look bad for them to admit they made a mistake,” Jennifer said.

The Harmeier’s claimed that district spokesperson Staci Stanfield stated in a previous media report that if the school district had made a mistake, they would admit it. The Harmeier’s say that statement has yet to come from Tomball ISD.

“The district followed the law and didn’t make a mistake,” Stanfield said. “The district followed the student code of conduct.”

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