After more than three years, Joel Krueger has been vindicated.
It all started in April of 2005 when Krueger, a student at Tippecanoe Valley High School at the time, was accused of making threatening comments against students.The students claimed Krueger and three other students made comments about bringing guns to school, and if they brought guns to school, who they would target.
Krueger denied making the statements.
In August, a jury in Kosciusko County Superior Court I with Judge Duane G. Huffer, ruled in favor of Krueger in a defamation case against the students who claimed Krueger made the comments.
The court found there was no evidence that Krueger ever made those comments.
"It was a really hard time for our family," said Shelley Krueger.
The incident at first, Shelley Krueger claims, was described by former TVHS assistant principal Rod McKee as "no big deal."
What started as "no big deal" quickly snowballed.
The Kosciusko County Sheriff's Department became involved. Rumors swirled around the towns of Akron and Mentone.
Shelley Krueger, who works at Bell Memorial Library, heard the talk around town.
A corporation-wide e-mail was sent by then THVS principal Mike Overmyer that, while not naming Krueger, mentions the incident.
In the e-mail, Overmyer stated that while a "male student" made statements, they "were given for its shock value and nothing more."
Shelley Krueger became frustrated that the school seemed to take the side of the students who made the claims against her son, despite the fact that her son denied ever making the statements all along.
Shelley Krueger had to pull her son, who was a sophomore at the time, out of school. No disciplinary action was ever taken against him by the school or by police.
"The school answers to nobody," said Shelley Krueger.
The judgement, levied against Vicki Scott, Tara Scott, Jamie Bradford, Angie Harris and Alexis Bradford, was for $1,490.
But the battle hasn't ended for Shelley Krueger. She continues to struggle with the state's Department of Education to try and get reimbursed for tuition she had to pay for Joel and a younger sister to attend Warsaw Community High School.
She knows she's fighting an uphill battle but she believes it's the right thing to do.
As for Joel, he currently is enlisted in the United States Army and is stationed in Texas. Joel graduated from Warsaw in 2007.
