Having tasted victory on a more local and personal level, a Suffolk mother is pursuing an ambitious campaign to reform how schools mete out discipline in Virginia.

Diminutive Ida Thompson might not look like a warrior, but after successfully appealing her son’s one-day suspension, she has vowed to fight for parents across the state whose children have been “unfairly” disciplined.

Report cards of Ida Thompson’s high functioning special-needs son, a rising third-grader, are replete with As.

But Aidan Thompson has experienced bullying and discipline issues, according to his mother and administration records she provided.

In April, he used a hand gesture to pretend to shoot his teacher, according to the suspension notice.

The suspension was overturned 34 days later after his mother, who is studying to become a lawyer, hired an attorney and went to Suffolk Public Schools’ Pupil Personnel Committee, one of the initial venues for such an appeal.

According to an email from Ida Thompson to school district Assistant Superintendent Kevin Alston, the punishment was “harsh and excessive,” despite her son’s behavior having been “very distasteful and immature.”

As the first step in the next phase of her battle to have the Virginia General Assembly review how school students are disciplined and to institute training for administrators, Thompson has secured the interim presidency of Kilby Shores’ Parent Teacher Association.

Many students do not adequately understand the rules, and administrators need to use more discretion and nuance when applying them, she says.

“The more I look into it, the greater the problem is,” Thompson said, adding that administrators “basically intimidate the parents into thinking they have no recourse. They say the school system and the School Board are going to back them up.”

Suffolk attorney Fred Taylor, who represented the Thompsons, said, “What might to be a proper set of rules or punishments for middle or high school students may not be a proper type of punishment for a first-grader, or a first-grader who doesn’t have the actual ability to understand what the rules are and what he’s being punished for.”

Rules and disciplinary procedures are interpreted differently along the chain of command, he said. “That’s probably the biggest thing we need to look at,” he added.

“The problem we run into, we realize we have got to have rules, but are we serving the student by taking a zero-tolerance policy, that if you make a hand gesture you are automatically suspended from school?

“Do they know the ramifications of the punishment? I don’t think they do.”

Of the 91 suspension or expulsion cases the committee heard in the 2011-2012 school year, 55 were changed.

In many expulsion requests for expellable offences, students were placed in different schools, Alston said, and some other appeals resulted in a fewer number of days suspended rather than complete reversals.

Additionally, the full School Board heard five cases, and three were changed.

In an email, Alston stated that he does not believe certain students are discriminated against in Suffolk.

“There may be mistakes made occasionally, but that is the reason for the many levels of the appeals process,” he stated.

The district has tried to change from the “one-size-fits-all approach,” and administrators are trained accordingly and encouraged to ask their managers when unsure about specific cases.

“There is always room for improvement,” Alston noted.

For the Virginia PTA Board of Managers to put her mission to the vote, making it official policy if approved, Thompson first needs the support of 50 percent of the organization’s parent members across the state.

As expressed in its proposed policies for the 2013 legislative session, the Virginia PTA would call on all school divisions to implement the Department of Education’s Model Student Conduct and School Discipline Policy and get involved in their schools’ conduct and disciplinary policies.

Thompson, while stressing she wants to work with Suffolk Public Schools, said she is coordinating with other school PTA presidents “to actively push for it.”

“I just happen to be a pre-law student, so I know my rights,” she said.