DECISION SOON ON DRUG POLICY

Interested parties in Judge Sandra Smith's courtroom Friday had heard the
arguments before. The attorney for Manteca Unified School District begged
the San Joaquin County Superior Court not to interfere with the enforcement
of district drug policy.

The attorney for East Union High School student Adam Zeiher said his
client's punishment was unfair and should be overturned.

Smith promised a decision, possibly as early as next week.

In May, Zeiher and then Sierra High

School classmates Travis McPherson and David Perry were punished for
allegedly smoking marijuana during a lunch break.

The students were suspended and received involuntary transfers to other
high schools -- thus disqualifying the trio from athletics this year.

In a hearing attended by the families and school officials last month,
Superior Court Judge K. Peter Saiers rescinded McPherson's punishment and
ordered the district to clear his record.

The Zeiher family filed an almost identical lawsuit after the school board
refused to reinstate Adam Zeiher and Perry.

The matter was assigned to Smith's courtroom when the school district
exercised its right to have another judge hear the case.

Attorney Todd Goluba, representing the school district, said in court
Friday that the previous court decision could handcuff district attempts to
curb marijuana use among students.

The Zeiher's attorney, Thomas Driscoll, who also represented McPherson,
rehashed his position in the previous case. He said the State Attorney
General's Office decided two years ago that zero-tolerance drug policies
imposed by some school districts were illegal.

Manteca Unified's revised policy -- allowing administrators to impose
five-day class suspensions, a 45-day social suspension and involuntary
transfer -- also is illegal, he said.

Transferring the students to other schools equates to expulsion, which
historically requires an appeal hearing, Driscoll argued.

"What we have are administrators who claim they have authority they don't
have," Driscoll said after Friday's hearing. "The reason we have this
continued litigation is that administrators are aggressively defending
their turf."