JUDGE COULD RULE TODAY ON EXPELLED GULF SHORES SENIOR

Parents' Lawsuit Seeks Girl's Reinstatement

A federal judge Monday continued to ponder the appeal of a Gulf Shores
homecoming queen and contender for valedictorian who was kicked out of
school after police found what they said were fragments of marijuana in her
car.

U.S. District Judge Charles R. Butler Jr. was expected to rule this morning
on the lawsuit filed by Virginia "Jenny" Hammock's parents, who seek her
return to the school. Butler heard arguments from attorneys for Hammock and
the Baldwin County School Board in court Wednesday.

"I hope she gets reinstated in school," said Hammock's Foley-based
attorney, James May.

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On March 8, Baldwin County school officials expelled Hammock, 18, from Gulf
Shores High School for the rest of the academic year.

A drug-sniffing dog had barked at Hammock's parents Toyota 4-Runner during
a search of the school's parking lot on Feb. 11. When police searched the
vehicle, they found small plant fragments on the driver and passenger sides
of the car. The fragments initially tested positive as marijuana, officials
said. After expelling Hammock under the county's "zero tolerance" police,
school officials offered her a chance to finish the year at an alternative
school. Hammock declined that offer.

Her parents, Dr. Roy and Jude Hammock, said in their lawsuit filed in late
March that the school system is interfering with their daughter's right to
a public education.

In court documents, Hammock's attorney claims she would have been Gulf
Shores' valedictorian if she had not been expelled. Hammock's mother said
her daughter also served as homecoming queen and editor of the school's
newspaper and yearbook. She is scheduled to attend Oglethorpe University in
Atlanta and will complete a general equivalency program to get her diploma,
her mother said.

At Wednesday's hearing, high school Principal Larry Keys testified that he
had expelled three other students stemming from similar incidents and that
Hammock had been treated fairly.

Baldwin County School Superintendent Albert Thomas defended the county's
drug policy. He said frequent drug-related problems have occurred in the
school's parking lot.

Thomas said Gulf Shores faces more problems with drugs than other parts of
Baldwin County, because of the large number of students who come there to
celebrate spring break or pass through the area on vacation.