VAN BUREN TOWNSHIP, Mich. -- Four Belleville High students began their alternative education in the district’s administration building with substitute teachers on Wednesday.

A Wayne County circuit court judge ruled on Tuesday four Belleville High teens expelled over their MySpace pages must be reinstated to school.

The judge ruled that the Van Buren school district did not follow due process in the expulsion.

The judge told the school board they have until Friday to hold another hearing. The new hearing must be on record, either with an official stenographer or videotaped.

The students will return to an alternative school setting immediately. If the school does not decide to hold another hearing, the students will be enrolled as regular students by Monday.

Van Buren Public Schools Superintendent Pete Lazaroff said he would recommend the school board hold another hearing.

The school district banned the students for the rest of the school year earlier this month because of photos on MySpace that show what appear to be guns, narcotics and piles of cash.

Van Buren police said the firearms were replica weapons.

Four of the students have filed a lawsuit, alleging the district violated their constitutional rights.

The students' attorney, Cliff Woodwards, said he filed a lawsuit against the school for reinstatement of the students and damages of $1 million to each student.

The superintendent said the photos shown on MySpace.com were taken after a limo picked the students up from a school dance. He said he thinks the students had weapons at the homecoming dance.

The students said the pictures were taken “off school grounds” and that the guns were fake. The pictures were intended to be for a rap CD they made for MySpace.com.

Lazaroff said the students bragged they were members of a gang. He said there are grounds for discipline whether the guns were real or fake.

Woodwards told Local 4 that the school district said the students were able to enroll in any other school in the district. However, he said no other schools will accept the students.

Parents testified in the judge’s chamber on how impossible it was to get these students into another school.

Parents of the students said they are good kids and all of them have at least a C + average.

The parents of the black students added that they believe the expulsion was racially motivated.

The three 16-year-olds and one 17-year old student have been out of school since Oct. 24.

Court Ruled Teens Expelled For MySpace Photos Can Return

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