SCHOOL POT USE CASE AIRED IN COURT

Parents of a suspended Sierra High School athlete challenged the Manteca
Unified School District's zero-tolerance drug policy in court Monday.

San Joaquin County Superior Court Judge K. Peter Saiers heard arguments in
a civil lawsuit involving Travis McPherson, who admitted to smoking
marijuana with two friends during a lunch break May 25. At the close of the
hearing, Saiers promised a decision within a week. School officials first
suspended McPherson and two classmates, then a month later a disciplinary
review board ordered the boys transferred to other schools for the fall
semester. In a lawsuit filed last month, Greg and Virginia McPherson asked
the court to reverse the disciplinary action, saying a school official
coerced the confession from their son by threatening to call police.

Their attorney, Thomas Driscoll of Lodi, argued in court Monday that the
disciplinary transfer violated the McPhersons' school-choice and
due-process rights. The transfer is a key issue because it prevents Travis
McPherson from playing his favorite sports -- football and golf -- during
his senior year under California Interscholastic Federation rules.

The parents say several colleges have expressed an interest in McPherson's
athletics.

"These colleges won't see him play his senior year if this transfer
stands," Driscoll contended in court.

He equated the transfer with an expulsion, which requires a hearing within
30 days under the Education Code. The school district denied the McPhersons
a formal hearing.

Attorney Todd Goluba, representing the district, countered that the policy
serves to separate unruly students from their peers.

"For the court to take away that right would take away a tool for dealing
with students' behavioral problems," Goluba said.

McPherson was not expelled, Goluba said. He's simply attending another
school in the district -- Manteca High.

The lawyers also debated the June 8 lab test at Doctors Hospital showing no
marijuana in Travis McPherson's system.

Driscoll said a hospital nurse validated the chain-of-custody of the test
sample, while Goluba countered that school officials had strong evidence
against the students.

Goluba noted that a campus monitor smelled a heavy odor of marijuana in the
students' car when they returned to campus and all three boys admitted
using the drug.

Parents of the other two students, Adam Zeiher and David Perry, listened
intently from the courtroom gallery.

Rebecca Zeiher, Adam's mother, said after the hearing that she'll seek to
have her son reinstated at Sierra High if the McPhersons prevail. "They
don't have the right to do this," she said. Noting that McPherson and Perry
are now classmates at Manteca High, the parents questioned the logic of the
transfer.

Meanwhile, McPherson said he has been jogging and lifting weights in
anticipation of the judge's decision. He's eager to return to Sierra and
take up football.

"I'm hoping to get on with my life," he said.