JUDGE THROWS OUT SCHOOL'S PUNISHMENT

Athlete Had Been Disciplined For Smoking Pot

MANTECA, Calif. (AP) - A high school's effort to crack down on marijuana
use backfired when it came to disciplining a football player who admitted
to smoking pot during lunch.

Travis McPherson, a defensive tackle and punter, sued to stay on the team
and remain at Sierra High School after a school district panel ordered him
transferred to another school for his senior year, a move that would bar
him from playing.

And in a rare legal setback for school officials under pressure to impose
zero-tolerance drug policies, a judge agreed on Thursday, ordering
McPherson reinstated at Sierra High and returned to Timberwolves' football
squad. He also ordered school officials to erase the disciplinary action
from his record.

"It had nothing to do with the underlying offense. It had to do with the
way the school handled the punishment," San Joaquin County Superior Court
Judge K. Peter Saiers told The Associated Press.

"I don't know what people are going to think. I don't care what people
think. I would do the same thing again," the judge said when asked whether
he was worried about his ruling sending the wrong message to teens and
schools.

The judge said the Manteca Unified School District's transfer was illegal
because the disciplinary review panel had imposed a punishment more
draconian than what the school's dean had promised McPherson would face if
he confessed.

During questioning by the dean, McPherson signed a statement admitting he
did in fact smoke marijuana, and agreed to a five-day academic suspension
and 45-day suspension from the football team.

That punishment was overruled a month later by the panel, which ordered
McPherson transferred to Manteca High School.

"I just know that I'm back here and that's all I really wanted," McPherson
said Thursday during a water break as he ran laps around the track.
"Everybody's been real supportive. They want me to come back and play."

Merely admitting to smoking pot is enough to disqualify an athlete from
competing under Califonia's interscholastic sports rules.