WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — For so many parents, school security is top of mind every time their child goes off to class.
One Palm Beach County School Board member is calling for a change on how some weapon incidents are handled.
The issue is tied to stun guns. Just last year, 11 students were expelled from Palm Beach County public schools for having the weapons on campus.
"I felt the need to protect myself, and I felt like I wasn't safe anymore," said Leeyah Brown, a student at Palm Beach Lakes Community High School in West Palm Beach.
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Brown started her junior year at Palm Beach Lakes as an honor roll student and a member of the JROTC with a bright future ahead.
But something wasn't right.
"I'd be walking home from school and I would just feel something over my shoulder. And it got to a point where I just didn't like it anymore," Brown said.
So Brown went online and purchased a mini stun gun for less than $15 to protect herself.
"So you never planned to use it at school?" WPTV education reporter Stephanie Susskind asked Brown.
"No. I never planned to use it at school," Brown answered. "It was used for after school. When I was walking to or from school. I would never use it at school."
Brown kept the stun gun in her backpack, claiming she never showed it to anyone.
But one day last March, a friend found it her bag and started playing with it. When school leaders found out about the weapon, it triggered a chain of events that changed Brown's life.
"They basically put me in handcuffs and told me, 'You are under arrest. You can't have this in school.' And I was crying. I was like, 'What's going on?' I didn't know I wasn't allowed to have this," Brown said.
Brown's mom, Danielle Walcott, was paralyzed in fear.
"The way I received the phone call was, 'Hello mom. Your daughter is going to jail,'" Walcott said.
Walcott said she never knew Brown had the weapon. Now her daughter was both arrested and ultimately expelled from school.
"When I first heard about the Taser, I knew something had to be done. But I didn't know the repercussions," Walcott said.
Electric weapons like stun guns are, by state law, zero tolerance weapons on school campuses. Like guns and knives, they lead to automatic expulsions.
WATCH: Stun guns for self-defense can get students expelled, Palm Beach County school police warn
"So what you want to do is take away the automatic expulsion?" Susskind asked Frank Barbieri, the chairman of the Palm Beach County School Board.
"Take away the automatic expulsion," Barbieri answered. "Leave it up to the superintendent as to what he thinks is the correct discipline for a student who has a Taser on campus."
Incidents like Brown's and other students with no previous disciplinary history have compelled Barbieri to try to make a change.
"The worst thing that I think a school board member ever has to go through is expelling a student. It makes your stomach churn," Barbieri.
Barbieri is appealing to state legislators to change the law so stun guns are not included in automatic expulsions.
But Barbieri added that the public should not misinterpret his mission. There would still be punishment.
"I'm not talking a bit about making schools unsafe," Barbieri said. "I'm not suggesting children should be able to bring Tasers to school and use them on school property."
"I had no idea I was doing anything wrong and if I did, I wouldn't have brought it on campus," Brown said.
Brown finished out her junior year at Riveria Beach Preparatory Academy, one of the school district's alternative schools.
"It was a great school at the time and they were very supportive. The principal, the staff, the students, everybody knew my situation and they were very supportive in trying to get me back into regular school because they knew that school I would not flourish in, but they knew it was the right school at the time," Brown said.
The 17-year-old added that what she's taken away from the entire ordeal is to "make yourself aware of the rules and the school you go to and the people you are around and voice your concerns, voice your safety concerns, speak up and just say what you are feeling in the moment."
"When I went to different places like Riveria Beach Prep or the Detention Center, I saw kids who were just like me. Kids who had a future ahead of them but made a mistake and I really just want people to know that mistake will not hold you back and this mistake is just another page in your story," Brown said. "It took a lot of learning the law and me and my mom, we both had to sit down and we were up late nights writing papers and trying to apologize and trying to make it up the ladder to the superintendent."
The family called this a traumatic journey, a lesson learned, and if their story can help someone else or bring about change, it's worth sharing.
"If you are not advocating for your child, if you are not fighting for your child, for their education, for their well-being, I felt as though she would be put to the side," Walcott said.
Barbieri said sometimes parents purchase the stun guns or Tasers for their children without knowing they are breaking a law if brought on campus.
"When a kid buys a taser off of Amazon for $19.99, puts it in their bookbag with no intention to hurt anybody other than when they are walking home from the school bus, they are afraid of the neighborhood they walk in that they might have to defend themselves- the kids aren't even the ones buying them. Most of the time it's the parents. The parents, some of them cry when they are talking to us saying can't you punish me instead, what can I do to take the punishment, so you don't expel my daughter," Barbieri said.
"The [state] statute defines what a weapon is which requires zero tolerance, which requires expulsion. So any student who commits a zero tolerance offense must be expelled. I just would like the state legislature to redefine what is a serious offense with respect to a taser and what is not because I think it should be up to the local school district," the school board chairman added. "Leave it up to the superintendent to decide whether a little device that can't kill anybody or would seriously hurt anybody should require that a student be expelled for a year."
Barbieri said that if the law is changed, the school board would create a policy to outline what the consequences would be if a student was caught with an electric weapon or device on campus.
When asked for a response on the proposal, the School District of Palm Beach County said it did not have a comment because it is proposed legislation.
Over the summer at a follow-up hearing, Superintendent Mike Burke of the School District of Palm Beach County allowed Brown to return to Palm Beach Lakes Community High School to start her senior year.
"I'm so happy," Walcott said. "I'm so thankful that they are at least taking it into consideration, because it's something that needs to be heard. And I hope my daughter's voice is heard."
"Stand tall in your truth and stand tall in your story," Brown said.
So what happens next? The Palm Beach County School Board will meet with the local legislative delegation on Nov. 1 where Barbieri said he'll talk to our local lawmakers about sponsoring legislation to achieve his goal.
In addition, the school district is installing new signs at Palm Beach County schools which include an image of stun guns alongside guns, knives, and box cutters as prohibited items.
As for Brown, she's on track to graduate from Palm Beach Lakes Community High School this year, working to get back into the JROTC program, and is meeting all of the court conditions to have her charges dismissed.
The teen also has a new routine for walking home from school.
