POT SMOKER'S LAMENT

2-Day School Suspension Doesn't Smell Right For Marijuana Marcher

For most 17-year-old high school students, it doesn't get much better
than a four-day weekend.

For a self-proclaimed -- albeit occasional -- pot smoker, it's like
manna from heaven.

But Matthew Bruni would rather have been at school instead of at home
yesterday after being handed a two-day suspension from Richmond Hill's
Saint Theresa Catholic High School.

His crime?

Joining two of his toking buddies -- plus another 20,000 weed walkers
- -- at the 10th annual Global Marijuana March at Queen's Park earlier
this month.

Matthew's buddies handed a teacher footage of the three of them at the
May 3 "freedom festival" for a school assignment.

The Grade 11 student wasn't involved in the assignment and says the
footage shows him smoking a cigarette.

But the school claims it's a joint and that Matthew is high as a
kite.

"They claim I was too stoned to remember," Matthew said, adding his
school is taking a "holier-than-thou" attitude.

So was he?

"I was, but they don't have it on camera so they can't prove it," he
said.

Saint Theresa's declined comment but York Catholic District School
Board spokesman Chris Cable said the three boys were told to steer
clear of the march as the topic for their communication technology
project.

They were suspended for "conduct injurious to the moral tone of the
school," Cable said.

"So in other words, they were on camera representing the school acting
in an inappropriate manner."

She dismissed Matthew's argument that the video had been shot out of
school hours and is therefore none of the school's business, saying
there is a "large school connection" because it was for a school assignment.

Matthew's mother, Delma Bruni, said Matthew wasn't doing anything
wrong and he was on his own time anyway. "Regardless of whether he was
high, the school is stepping over the line here,"