PARENTS SAY DRUG POLICY REVIEW OVERDUE

Bossier School Board committee plans to meet on Tuesday

Parents, who have complained for years about Bossier Parish School Board's
zero-tolerance policy on drugs, may get relief Tuesday when a board
committee considers possible changes to the way students caught with
over-the-counter medications are disciplined.

The policy, which has not always been imposed to the full extent, attracted
national attention recently when a Parkway High School sophomore was
expelled for having Advil in her purse. Some parents say a policy review is
long overdue.

Bossier City resident Sandy McGee heard School Board members say nearly two
years ago that they would consider changing the policy. McGee and her
husband, Wes McGee, appealed their daughter Kasey Battson's expulsion after
the girl took an over-the-counter caffeine pill while a seventh-grader at
Rusheon Middle School.

The School Board upheld Kasey's expulsion. Kasey was to attend Bossier's
alternative school for a year, but Sandy McGee calls to school system
officials resulted in Kasey and three other girls going back to Rusheon two
months short of a full year.

"I just kept on them," Sandy McGee said. "I kept saying, 'Please help me.
Please help my daughter.' I also told them I was calling for the other
girls, not just my daughter."

Kasey went to Charlotte Anne Mitchell Alternative School.

"It was silent in the hallways. You couldn't talk in the lunch room," Kasey
said. "They locked the bathrooms. They had to walk us to the bathroom. I
hated it. It was jail."

Kasey's stint at the alternative school stemmed from an incident in February
2002. She and two other girls received caffeine pills from a fourth student
who brought them to school. Kasey said she swallowed the pill despite
misgivings because the other girls told her it would give her energy. She
said they assured her it wasn't a drug.

She became ill, vomiting and fainting, and was taken to the office, where
she told the principal and a school resource officer what happened.

The McGees went to the school, talked to the principal and SRO and took
their daughter home. At first, Sandy said, it seemed Kasey wouldn't be
disciplined.

"She was crying. She was worried about being in trouble because she was a
cheerleader," Sandy said.

But two days later Kasey was suspended and recommended for expulsion. Sandy
said she supported the suspension as appropriate punishment but felt the
expulsion was too harsh. All four girls were expelled.

"People who go before a judge for drug possession aren't put in the slammer
right away," Sandy said. "They're slamming our kids in the slammer right off
the bat."

Sandy was among parents who called Amanda Stiles - the Parkway student who
was expelled in November - and her mother, Kelly Herpin, to offer support
after Stiles and Herpin went public with their opposition to the zero
tolerance policy.

Like Stiles and Herpin, Sandy believes system officials should judge each
child's situation individually. School Board administrative committee
members may address that concern and others about the policy Tuesday.

School Board President Ken Wiggins said Friday he talked to the school
system's attorney before calling the meeting. The attorney will "present
options for possible modifications or changes in implementation of the
current policy," Wiggins said.

He declined to elaborate, saying he wanted to share the information with
Superintendent Ken Kruithof, who was out of town Friday, before commenting
further.

What's next

The Bossier Parish School Board administrative committee meets at 5 p.m.
Tuesday at the Bossier Parish School Board in Benton.

For More Information

Visit the Louisiana Legislature Web site at www.legis.state.la.us for more
information on the state law covering student discipline. Click on
"Louisiana Laws" and follow prompts to search the Web site for Revised
Statute 17:416.