LIVINGSTON SCHOOL BOARD RELENTS; EXPELLED STUDENT TAKES LEAP TEST

LIVINGSTON -- An eighth-grade Doyle High School student expelled in
October was allowed to take the LEAP test Friday after attorneys for
the Livingston Parish School Board reached an agreement with the
child's parents Thursday, the attorneys said.

The agreement came out of a show cause hearing before Judge Brenda
Bedsole Ricks of the 21st Judicial District Court on Thursday, the
attorneys said Friday.

The parents of the student sued the School Board on Wednesday to allow
their child to take the test and have a chance to advance to ninth
grade, court records show.

Bedsole Ricks issued a temporary restraining order against the School
Board on Wednesday and ordered the hearing. The temporary order was
dropped after the agreement was reached, attorneys said.

The School Board discussed the lawsuit in closed session Thursday
night and voted to allow the student to take the test, board attorney
Carey Tom Jones said Friday. The board also hired an attorney at $150
per hour who helped at the hearing.

Charlotte McDaniel McGehee, an attorney for the student, asserted the
student was denied access to alternative school despite repeated
attempts by the parents to get access.

The student later was denied the ability to take the Louisiana
Educational Assessment Program test because school system officials
refused to recognize the student's interim home-schooling efforts,
court records show.

McDaniel McGehee said the school system's positions are leaving
expelled students with no options and violate the law. "We really
think there is a problem with students out there with nothing to do,"
she said.

Superintendent of Schools Randy Pope said Friday that under school
system policy, expelled students must sit out the school year and
retake the grade the next year.

He said the school system does not have an alternative school but an
"alternative education program." It includes students who are expelled
but not those kicked out for drugs or weapons, he said.

McDaniel McGehee said the student admitted to smoking marijuana after
leaving campus during a school event but was not found with the drug
in possession.

State law generally requires that public schools offer alternative
school for expelled students but not when they are expelled for
possession or knowledge of drugs.

Without a true alternative school, state law allows school systems to
get a waiver of the requirement. The plaintiffs say the school system
didn't have that waiver this year. Pope said the waiver was approved
late because of paperwork mistake.

A status conference has been set for Aug. 21.