TEEN POT PENALTIES REVERSED

The school board has reversed the punishment against two high school
students who were accused last May of smoking marijuana, while it appeals a
court decision that declared the punishment illegal.

Manteca Unified School District trustees voted 6-1 Tuesday night to return
Adam Zeiher and David Perry to Sierra High School. Trustee John Holbrook
dissented. In a separate decision, trustees voted 5-2 to appeal a San
Joaquin County Superior Court decision handed down Monday that overturned
Zeiher's punishment. Trustees Nancy Teicheira and Nellie Zavala voted
against the appeal.

Zeiher, Perry and Travis McPherson were suspended and transferred to other
schools when a Sierra High School monitor reported smelling marijuana in
Zeiher's car as the boys returned from eating lunch off campus in May.

All three admitted smoking marijuana, but later said their confessions were
coerced after school officials threatened to call police.

Wishing their son to graduate from Sierra High, the McPherson family sued
the district in August and Judge K. Peter Saiers reversed the punishment
against Travis, who returned to Sierra last month.

The school board's refusal to apply Saiers' ruling to Zeiher prompted a
lawsuit from the Zeiher family.

Judge Sandra Smith ruled in the Zeihers' favor Monday, saying school
officials lacked authority to transfer Adam to another school. Perry also
benefited from the ruling, when the school board reversed the punishment
against both.

The school board is appealing Smith's ruling because it strikes at the
district's use of involuntary transfers to deal with misbehaving students.
School officials say more than 40 students have been moved to other schools
in the district this year for disciplinary problems.

According to Smith's ruling, the state Education Code makes no provisions
for such transfers without parental consent or formal hearings.