FREE SPEECH GOES UP IN SMOKE AT SCHOOL

Saskatchewan Student's Marijuana Research Spurs Lockdown And
Suspension

WINNIPEG -- It started months ago when Kieran King's high-school class
heard a presentation about the dangers of drug use.

Kieran, a 15-year-old Grade 10 student in tiny Wawota, Sask.,
population 600, thought the presentation lacked credibility, so he did
some research on the relative health risks of alcohol, tobacco and
cannabis.

When he told some of his fellow students that cannabis seemed the
least hazardous of the three, he set in motion a series of events that
led to a school lockdown, a threat assessment involving the RCMP, a
suspension and failing grades on his exams.

"It's all a bit overwhelming," his mother, Jo Anne Euler, said. "It's
just totally bizarre."

She explained that her son is a compulsive researcher who tends to go
on at length about what he reads on the Internet.

One student at Wawota Parkland School didn't want to hear Kieran's
thoughts about marijuana, and complained to principal Susan Wilson.

The principal then called Kieran's mother because she was concerned he
was advocating drug use, Ms. Euler said.

Ms. Euler told the principal her son is an A student who doesn't go
out, doesn't smoke or drink, and isn't pushing drugs on other kids.

"She said 'Well, if he talks about it again, I will be calling the
police,' " Ms. Euler said. "I told Kieran that and he said 'Mom, all
I'm doing is sharing the facts.' "

Kieran felt his right to free speech was being trampled, so he
enlisted the help of the Saskatchewan Marijuana Party.

Together they planned a school walkout for free speech, scheduled for
11 a.m. last Tuesday, where free chocolate chip hemp seed cookies
would be handed out.

But just before 11 that day, the principal announced that the school
was a closed campus and that no one was allowed outside.

When several students tried to leave anyway, teachers barred the doors
and ordered them back to class, Ms. Euler said. Kieran and his younger
brother Lucas defied and joined a ragtag group of five protesters
standing across from the school holding placards.

The principal then ordered a lockdown to ensure the safety of
students. The RCMP raced to the scene, only to find a small, peaceful
protest.

Kieran's mother was again called to the school and told that both her
sons had been suspended for three days. Later that day, the school
conducted a threat assessment on Kieran with the help of the RCMP and
school division counsellors, Ms. Euler said.

"In the letter I got about the threat assessment [the principal] had
documented five or six times in the last year that Kieran had talked
to some kid about marijuana - not one of those times was Kieran ever
talked to or was I ever talked to. Were they documented before or was
it a witch hunt after the fact where they said 'Let's try to remember
all the times Kieran talked about marijuana?' "

Don Rempel, director of education in the South East Cornerstone School
Division, said the principal acted appropriately.

"The school had received complaints that the student was promoting the
use of marijuana as an alternative to alcohol or sharing information
around marijuana use," Mr. Rempel said, adding that Kieran overreacted
to the principal's simple request.

Kieran is now in Shanghai where he will spend the summer learning
Mandarin and working as an English tutor. He had scheduled his exams
early in order to accommodate his trip, but the suspension meant he
couldn't attend school to write the exams. As a result, he got a mark
of zero on each paper. His marks were high enough to pass, but instead
of getting 85 or 90, he'll get 55 or 60, his mother said, which could
hurt his chances of a university scholarship.

She is appealing to the school board to allow Kieran to write his
exams in September.