STATE LAW ON DRUGS IN SCHOOLS HAS 'GRAY AREA'

Even state education officials aren't sure whether the punishment meted out
by the Bossier Parish School Board for having over-the-counter medication at
school is required by state law.

A five-member Bossier Parish School Board committee that hears student
discipline appeals meets today to consider possible changes to the school
system's policy, which requires a one-year expulsion for students caught
with nonprescription drugs.

Board members will hear the system's attorney explain his interpretation of
the law, something they didn't have when they voted Dec. 4 to uphold the
expulsion of 15-year-old Amanda Stiles, even though school system officials
including Superintendent Ken Kruithof cited state law when defending the
board's decision.

Stiles' expulsion from Parkway High School in Bossier City for having Advil
in her purse created a national furor over the school system's
"zero-tolerance" policy on drugs, including over-the-counter medications.
Stiles' mother, Kelly Herpin, said Monday that she plans to attend the
meeting.

Mandatory expulsion is the same penalty state law requires for students
caught with illegal or prescription drugs. But the state law outlining
student discipline is silent on nonprescription medication.

"It (school discipline law) talks about possessing or the intent to
distribute any illegal or narcotic drug," said Gary Reed, the state
Department of Education's legislative affairs consultant. "But if you talk
about a kid bringing something to school that's nonprescription, it's not a
controlled, dangerous substance. When you talk about that, that's kind of a
gray area of over-the-counter medications."

Bossier Parish school officials based their policy and punishment for having
over-the-counter medications at school on a state law that regulates how
medication is dispensed at school. The school system policy requires
students to turn in prescription and nonprescription medicine to school
officials, who can dispense the medicine only with a doctor's authorization.

Kruithof told reporters Dec. 4 that board members were upholding state law
when they agreed with Stiles' expulsion. And Betty McCauley, the system's
student services director, said before the hearing that state law required a
one-year expulsion for anyone caught with pills on campus.

But Monday, Kruithof said he was referring to the state law that regulates
how schools dispense medicine, not the law outlining offenses for which
students face suspension or expulsion.

"We were upholding the state law about medication, that it has to be turned
in to the office," Kruithof said.