GLORIA ALLRED TO DEFEND BOY, 13, SUSPENDED FOR HAVING POT

The parents of a 13-year-old boy have hired attorney Gloria Allred to
represent their son, who may face marijuana possession charges in Juvenile
Court.

Tyler Hagen of Saugus and three other Arroyo Seco Junior High School
students could be charged with offenses ranging from possession to the sale
of a controlled substance on school grounds, according to a Sheriff's
Department spokesman.

Sheriff's officials, without giving details, cast doubt on Tyler's story
that he turned over a small amount of marijuana to his parents to help a
scared friend dispose of the drug.

The seventh-grader, however, maintains that he thought he was doing the
right thing when he alerted his parents instead of school officials about
the marijuana on campus.

By not going to school officials immediately, Tyler was found to have
violated the district's strict school policy on illegal drugs and received
a five-day suspension that ended last Friday and was transferred to another
junior high school in the district.

"The actions taken by the school in reference to Tyler have been cruel and
seemingly without regard to Tyler's intentions and his good deed," Allred
said at a news conference Wednesday at her Los Angeles office.

Allred, along with Tyler and his mother, Linda, attended a William S. Hart
Union High School District board meeting Wednesday night. "We will request
the right to address the board on this issue and explain why this decision
to suspend and transfer Tyler is unjust and should be reversed," Allred
said before the meeting.

Allred also responded to a Sheriff's Department announcement on Wednesday
that it intended to seek charges in Juvenile Court against the junior high
students who were in possession of marijuana. "While the release did not
name the boys against whom the sheriff seeks to file criminal charges,
Tyler appears to be identifiable as a target of the sheriff because of the
context of the release and the high-profile nature of the case," Allred said.