Pubdate: Fri, 02 Dec 2005
Source: Sentinel And Enterprise, The (MA)
Copyright: 2005 MediaNews Group, Inc. and Mid-States Newspapers, Inc.
Contact:  http://sentinelandenterprise.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2498
Author: Crystal C. Bozek
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?225 (Students - United States)

MOTHER PLANS LEGAL ACTION AGAINST SCHOOL

LEOMINSTER -- The mother of a Samoset School eighth-grader is planning
to take legal action against the city's school district after
administrators suspended her son for a year for carrying a three-inch
pocket knife to a dance. Karen Macfee Leger initially called for
Leominster school administrators -- specifically Samoset principal
Elizabeth Schaper -- to overturn their decision and allow her son
Lucas back in school.

Now she says its too late for Lucas in Leominster schools. "Lucas
can't go back to school now. I could go and plead before the school
board, but people in school could make his life hell. It'd be awkward
with teachers. Missing so much school, he'd have failing grades,"
Leger said. Honor student Lucas Macfee is close to serving a month of
his year-long suspension from school -- or what Leger calls a sentence
- -- for taking a hit  from a marijuana joint and carrying a three-inch
pocket knife to a school dance in October.

Leger said he never took the knife out of his pocket or threatened
anyone. He was only carrying it around to fix the wheels of his
skateboard, a substitute for a screw driver, she said.

"Yes, Lucas was wrong, but other kids have gotten three day
suspensions for smoking marijuana in school," she said. "And my son,
who made one bad choice --  and at the wrong place at the wrong time
- -- is facing a year." The student handbook says students can be given
anything from a 10-day suspension to an expulsion for carrying a
weapon at the principal's discretion. Leger's change of heart came
Monday, hours before she was to meet with Mayor Dean Mazzarella on the
subject.

She ended up canceling their meeting. "I thought to myself, 'What can
he do for me at this point?' (Officials) hadn't tried to reach me at
all in a month," she said. "And now I've been advised not to speak
with officials without legal representation anyway." Leger is in the
process of securing an attorney with the intent to file a civil rights
and discrimination lawsuit.

For now, she is home-schooling Lucas, using a five-hour-a-day computer
program, and carting him off to Orchard Hill Country Club for physical
education. Lucas will also start volunteering at an elder care
facility. The 13-year-old has also started seeing a counselor. "He's
traumatized. He's one hurting little boy," Leger said. "This is a
little boy's life we're talking about here. Their decision could keep
him out of the Air Force, his dream."

Mayor Dean Mazzarella said his office has received several phone calls
in support of Lucas. A black SUV parked by Samoset School sported a
"Let Lucas Back In School" sign last week.

Leger is also preparing letters for U.S. Sens. John Kerry and Edward
Kennedy.

"I plan to plaster this everyplace I can to show people," she said.
"I'll write a letter to President Bush. I already sent one to Oprah
Winfrey."
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake