COURT UPHOLDS EXPULSION OF STUDENT FOR AFTER-SCHOOL DRUG USE

A judge has upheld the Metro school system's expulsion of a
14-year-old boy from Hume-Fogg Magnet School for smoking marijuana on
the way home from school.

The student's father, Steven K. Jones, contended in a lawsuit filed
in Chancery Court that Metro schools' written zero-tolerance policy,
which requires a one-year expulsion of students for drug use and
other misconduct, does not apply to behavior off school grounds and
after school.

The father's lawyer, David Raybin, said school officials expelled
Jameson Jones from Hume-Fogg, a magnet high school for gifted
students, based on "subjective" standards that are stricter than
state law. He said the Metro rules are too "fuzzy" for students to
understand.

Chancellor Ellen Hobbs Lyle ruled, after a hearing Thursday, that
state law allows local school boards to "expand" their zero-tolerance
rules beyond those mandated by the legislature.

And, Lyle said, Metro schools' Code of Student Conduct lists as a
zero-tolerance offense "using marijuana off campus if the behavior is
disruptive to the school environment . . . or constitutes a threat to
the health, safety or welfare of the student body."

Raybin told Lyle on Thursday that Jameson Jones is now attending a
Metro "alternative school," which will make it harder for him to get
into a "premier college" when he graduates from high school.

Raybin said yesterday that he expects Steven Jones and his estranged
wife, Catherine Prentis, to keep their son in the Metro schools until
he is able to return to Hume-Fogg next year.

"These parents are committed to the public school system," Raybin said.

Prentis is coordinator of Metro's magnet school program, and Steven
Jones is a consultant for employee benefit programs. Prentis was not
a plaintiff in the lawsuit against the Metro schools.

The judge said Jameson Jones "was on notice ... that if he smoked
marijuana with other students in the church lot across the street
from the school within one-half hour of school being dismissed, he
was at risk for being expelled from school for one year."

Raybin said yesterday that he and Steven Jones "are disappointed by
the judge's ruling and are considering an appeal."

Raybin said that regardless of whether he files an appeal of Lyle's
decision, he hopes the Metro school board will re-examine its
zero-tolerance policy.

The legislature mandated zero tolerance for drugs, weapons and
violence in public schools, beginning in 1996. The legislature voted
last year to give school officials more flexibility in dealing with
those problems case by case, but the Metro school board has not
changed its rules since then, Raybin said.

A 500-page performance audit of Metro schools by MGT of America
released Wednesday stated that "zero-tolerance" violations are much
higher in local schools than in other Tennessee school districts.

The audit recommended a re-evaluation of the policy to see if rules
are overly strict, if enforcement is too rigorous or if punishments
are too lax to provide a deterrent.

Prentis sued Steven Jones for divorce in June on grounds of
irreconcilable differences, but court records show no further action
on the case since then.