ADVIL EXPULSION MAY PROMPT BOARD TO REVAMP ZERO-TOLERANCE DRUG POLICY

BENTON, La. (AP) - The furor since a high-school student was expelled for
bringing Advil to class may prompt a change in the Bossier Parish School
Board's zero-tolerance policy on drugs.

Some parents say a review is long overdue.

Bossier City resident Sandy McGee heard School Board members say nearly two
years ago that they would consider changing the policy.

She and her husband, Wes McGee, appealed their daughter Kasey Battson's
expulsion after the girl took an over-the-counter caffeine pill while a
seventh-grader at Rusheon Middle School.

The School Board upheld the one-year expulsions of Kasey, two other girls
who took the pills and the girl who brought the pills in February 2002.

Sandy McGee's calls to school system officials got all four back at Rusheon
two months before the year was out.

Kasey went to Charlotte Anne Mitchell Alternative School.

"It was silent in the hallways. You couldn't talk in the lunch room," Kasey
said. "They locked the bathrooms. They had to walk us to the bathroom. I
hated it. It was jail."

Kasey said she swallowed the pill despite misgivings because the other girls
told her it would give her energy. She said they assured her it wasn't a
drug.

After she vomited and fainted, she told the principal and a school resource
officer what happened.

The McGees went to the school, talked to the principal and SRO and took
their daughter home. "She was crying. She was worried about being in trouble
because she was a cheerleader," Sandy said.

Two days later, she was suspended and recommended for expulsion.

Sandy said she supported the suspension but felt the expulsion was too
harsh. All four girls were expelled.

"People who go before a judge for drug possession aren't put in the slammer
right away," Sandy said. "They're slamming our kids in the slammer right off
the bat."

Sandy was among parents who called Amanda Stiles - the Parkway student
expelled in November - and her mother, Kelly Herpin, to offer support after
Stiles and Herpin went public with their opposition to the zero tolerance
policy.

Like Stiles and Herpin, Sandy believes system officials should judge each
child's situation individually.

School Board administrative committee members may address that concern and
others about the policy Tuesday.

School Board President Ken Wiggins said Friday he talked to the school
system's attorney before calling the meeting.

The attorney will "present options for possible modifications or changes in
implementation of the current policy," Wiggins said.

He said he wanted to give details to Superintendent Ken Kruithof, who was
out of town Friday, before commenting further.