DRUG PUNISHMENT OVERTURNED

Judge reinstates high school athlete

MANTECA -- 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 have
barred him from playing.

And in a rare legal setback for school officials under pressure to impose
zero-tolerance drug policies, a judge Thursday ordered McPherson reinstated
at Sierra High and returned to the 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 severe
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 smoke marijuana, and he agreed to a five-day academic suspension and a
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 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 California's interscholastic sports rules.

But by deciding that the district reneged on its May 25 suspension agreement
with McPherson, Saiers never had to address the school's authority to impose
discipline in drug cases, or deal with the underlying pot-smoking
allegation.

In any case, McPherson says he didn't smoke pot and that he signed the
statement only after being threatened with police action by then-Dean Maggie
Freeman.

``I told her I didn't do it. She just didn't believe me,'' he said. ``I've
never been in trouble before. I didn't know what to do. I just said I did
it. It just seemed the easiest way to go. I made up a big ol' story.''

Pete Carton, senior counsel with the Schools Legal Service, which represents
120 school boards in central and Southern California, sympathized Friday
with the school district, which, like many, is under increasing pressure to
crack down on drug use.

``What has happened now with the proliferation of guns, drugs, weapons, you
wind up with more cases where somehow the juvenile system can't or won't
lock these kids up when they do these stunts,'' Carton said. ``The
Legislature has said, `We've got to tell these school systems they've got to
stop balking at throwing these kids out.' ''

The police and McPherson's parents were notified of the pot-smoking
admission, but Thomas Driscoll, the family's attorney, said as far as he
knew, police never pursued the matter.