DISTRICT DEFENDS SUSPENDING STUDENT WHO TURNED OVER POT TO PARENTS

Schools: Boy, 13, says he tried to do the right thing, and his family is
outraged. But officials say action was required by zero-tolerance policy.

SAUGUS--Officials in the William S. Hart Union High School District
reaffirmed their zero-tolerance policy Thursday in the case of Tyler Hagen,
13, who alerted his parents instead of school officials about marijuana on
campus.

The seventh-grader at Arroyo Seco Junior High School said he thought he was
doing the right thing last Friday when, agreeing to help a scared friend
dispose of some marijuana, he turned it over to his parents, who in turn
gave it to sheriff's deputies.

By not going to school officials immediately, Tyler was found to have
violated the district's strict school policy on illegal drugs and was
suspended for five days. The suspension started Monday, and it was not
clear when or if Tyler would be allowed to return to Arroyo Seco.

"This is the wrong message being sent to children," said Linda Hagen,
Tyler's mother. "They are told in DARE programs that if someone tries to
sell them drugs to tell their parents, and he was punished for that."

Hagen said she and her husband, Chris, plan to seek legal counsel to advise
them of their son's rights. "We plan to fight to get him reinstated in the
school," she said.

And Tyler said the incident will likely affect his reputation: "Everyone's
going to think I'm a crackhead or something." The case highlights the
contentious debate over zero-tolerance policies and mirrors several other
incidents at schools nationwide in recent years:

* A 10-year-old girl was suspended from her Mission Viejo elementary school
after a toy cap gun on a key chain fell out of her backpack.

* A 12-year-old boy was expelled from a Corona school for possessing
folding fingernail clippers. The Riverside County Board of Education later
overturned the expulsion.

* A 13-year-old Texas girl was suspended for carrying a bottle of Advil,
detected in her backpack by a drug-sniffing dog.

* A seventh-grader in West Virginia was sent home for giving a zinc cough
drop to a friend.

Advocates say zero-tolerance policies are necessary to protect students
from drugs, alcohol, firearms and disruptive behavior on campuses. Hart
district officials said that under school rules they had no choice but to
punish Tyler.

"This district has a zero-tolerance policy," said Michael von Buelow,
assistant superintendent for personnel and student services. "Any student
caught in possession of an illegal substance on campus is going to be
disciplined." Von Buelow said administrators at Arroyo Seco were
discouraged by the public outcry that has erupted in the wake of Tyler's
suspension.

"They took action for good reason, and those reasons are being communicated
very differently publicly," he said. "[Administrators] are frustrated
because they cann't get into specific details about the case; you cann't
defend yourself.

"You do the right thing and you get criticized," he added. "We want people
to know there is much more to this story than we can let out at this time."
Arroyo Seco Principal Jackie Snyder did not respond to telephone calls.

School policy stipulates that students caught selling drugs or having
repeated possession offenses are ordered to appear before an expulsion
panel composed of administrators from other schools, Von Buelow said.

First-time possession offenders, he said, are given a choice between a
one-to-five-day suspension or mandatory attendance in a school-based drug
and alcohol awareness class.

"The boy [Tyler] was given a choice: either a suspension or the program
that could serve in lieu of suspension, and that was turned down," he said.

Opponents of zero-tolerance rules say the absolutist philosophy does not
allow for mitigating factors.

"That is the stupidity side of zero tolerance; it means at the same time
you have zero options," said Peter Blauvelt, president of the National
Alliance of Safe Schools, a nonprofit consulting group run by former school
security directors in College Park, Md.

"As we try to convince kids to break the code of silence about other kids,
they say, 'I thought I was doing right and I got banned. [Authorities] can
rot in hell before I share information again.' " Asked what he would do if
someone again approaches him with drugs, Tyler said, "Walk away."