Pubdate: Tue, 14 Sep 1999 Source: Modesto Bee, The (CA) Copyright: 1999 The Modesto Bee. Feedback: http://www.modbee.com/man/help/contact.html Website: http://www.modbee.com/ Author: Ken Carlson, Bee Staff Writer SCHOOL POT USE CASE AIRED IN COURT Parents of a suspended Sierra High School athlete challenged the Manteca Unified School District's zero-tolerance drug policy in court Monday. San Joaquin County Superior Court Judge K. Peter Saiers heard arguments in a civil lawsuit involving Travis McPherson, who admitted to smoking marijuana with two friends during a lunch break May 25. At the close of the hearing, Saiers promised a decision within a week. School officials first suspended McPherson and two classmates, then a month later a disciplinary review board ordered the boys transferred to other schools for the fall semester. In a lawsuit filed last month, Greg and Virginia McPherson asked the court to reverse the disciplinary action, saying a school official coerced the confession from their son by threatening to call police. Their attorney, Thomas Driscoll of Lodi, argued in court Monday that the disciplinary transfer violated the McPhersons' school-choice and due-process rights. The transfer is a key issue because it prevents Travis McPherson from playing his favorite sports -- football and golf -- during his senior year under California Interscholastic Federation rules. The parents say several colleges have expressed an interest in McPherson's athletics. "These colleges won't see him play his senior year if this transfer stands," Driscoll contended in court. He equated the transfer with an expulsion, which requires a hearing within 30 days under the Education Code. The school district denied the McPhersons a formal hearing. Attorney Todd Goluba, representing the district, countered that the policy serves to separate unruly students from their peers. "For the court to take away that right would take away a tool for dealing with students' behavioral problems," Goluba said. McPherson was not expelled, Goluba said. He's simply attending another school in the district -- Manteca High. The lawyers also debated the June 8 lab test at Doctors Hospital showing no marijuana in Travis McPherson's system. Driscoll said a hospital nurse validated the chain-of-custody of the test sample, while Goluba countered that school officials had strong evidence against the students. Goluba noted that a campus monitor smelled a heavy odor of marijuana in the students' car when they returned to campus and all three boys admitted using the drug. Parents of the other two students, Adam Zeiher and David Perry, listened intently from the courtroom gallery. Rebecca Zeiher, Adam's mother, said after the hearing that she'll seek to have her son reinstated at Sierra High if the McPhersons prevail. "They don't have the right to do this," she said. Noting that McPherson and Perry are now classmates at Manteca High, the parents questioned the logic of the transfer. Meanwhile, McPherson said he has been jogging and lifting weights in anticipation of the judge's decision. He's eager to return to Sierra and take up football. "I'm hoping to get on with my life," he said. - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake