Pubdate: Sat, 07 Oct 2000
Source: Oregonian, The (OR)
Copyright: 2000 The Oregonian
Contact:  1320 SW Broadway, Portland, OR 97201
Fax: 503-294-4193
Website: http://www.oregonlive.com/
Forum: http://forums.oregonlive.com/

JUDGE REINSTATES STUDENT LEADER AFTER DRUG INCIDENT

The Ruling Says Phoenix High School Was Wrong To Strip Him Of His
Office After He Had Marijuana At School

MEDFORD -- A Jackson County judge has reinstated a student body president 
at Phoenix High School who was found on campus with marijuana.

Judge Phil Arnold said administrators had no authority to punish Keanon 
Ferguson beyond the standard five-day suspension for a first-time drug 
offense because the school's rules did not address wrongdoing by elected 
student leaders.

"To craft a punishment which is outside the rules, after the infraction has 
been committed, is not a fair and consistent enforcement of the rules as 
required by Oregon law," the judge wrote in a ruling issued Thursday.

The ruling came with a court-ordered injunction, forcing the school 
district to reinstate Ferguson's title.

The school board voted unanimously Thursday night to appeal. In the 
meantime, Ferguson's title will be restored.

Retired attorney Bill Ferguson said he sued the school district on his 
son's behalf not necessarily because he disagreed with the punishment, but 
because he felt it was illegal.

"What the kid did was wrong," he said. "By the same token, he's required to 
obey the rules and so is the school. It's a two-way street."

Ferguson sued the school district after his son -- then the student body 
president-elect -- was caught in the school parking lot June 12 with a 
small amount of marijuana and a glass pipe in his pants pocket. A campus 
security officer also smelled the odor of marijuana smoke coming from 
Ferguson's car, which contained a roach and roach clip.

School officials initially suspended Ferguson for five days, the standard 
punishment prescribed by the school's drug policy. He also was suspended 
from the football team for several weeks, missed a game and was forced to 
submit to random drug testing.

But during the summer, administrators decided Ferguson's behavior set a 
poor example for a student body president. They stripped him of his title, 
a decision later affirmed by the school board.

In a hearing before Arnold last week, Ashland attorney Tom Howser argued 
that his client was punished more severely than allowed by school rules and 
that Oregon law requires consistent enforcement of written rules.

Howser argued that, under the Phoenix High constitution, only students may 
recall an elected class officer. Arnold's ruling did not address the 
subject, and it remains to be seen whether a recall effort is mounted.
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