BOARD LIFTS EXPULSION OVER ADVIL

The Parkway High School sophomore who was expelled in November for
possessing Advil on campus is back in school. The case made news for more
than a month on Web sites and radio and television stations nationwide.

The Bossier Parish School Board approved a Central Office decision to let
Amanda Stiles return to the Bossier City campus earlier this week, board
member George Finck said. Bossier schools Superintendent Kenneth Kruithof
could not be reached for comment.

Stiles was thrilled when she heard the news, her mother said. "She really
wanted to get back because she was worried about getting behind in her
classes," Kelly Herpin said.

Course work was the main reason the School Board decided to lift the
expulsion of Stiles and the other student, Finck said. "We were concerned
about the continuity in their studies."

Stiles had been made to attend Charlotte Mitchell Educational Center, one
of the parish's alternative schools, and wasn't expected to return to
Parkway High until December.

Her expulsion was lifted after a committee reviewed a case of
over-the-counter drug possession involving a different student and a
unanimous vote Dec. 18 for more flexible punishments under the parish's
zero-tolerance drug policy, Finck said.

Herpin first learned Monday that her daughter's expulsion had been lifted.
"When I got back home from work, there was a message from the
superintendent, Mr. Kruithof."

Herpin hopes this is the last chapter in the Advil saga.

She said she also learned "the power of the media. I got up there in front
of the (School) Board and said everything the state attorney said, but they
wouldn't listen to me. I guess they just needed some outside pressure."