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Not that school isn't romantic, but ... By JONEL ALECCIA With Valentine's Day less than a month away, some area high schools are reminding sentimental parents and lovesick students to let Cupid take aim off campus and after class. Several high schools, including those in Ashland and Medford, are no-flower zones -- places where deliveries of balloons, chocolates and roses are not accepted. "We are very sorry to have to make this decision; however, the whole day is disrupted with the delivery of flowers," reads a notice in a bulletin sent to Ashland High School parents. "Typically on Valentine's Day we get bombarded with balloons, flowers, valentines, candies or whatever," explains Principal Julie Reynolds, who stopped the gifts a few years ago. "We wanted to remind parents that we aren't doing that." North Medford High School stopped accepting deliveries a decade ago; South High quit the practice more recently. "It escalates until the point that we're not a school anymore, we're a delivery service," says Jani Hale, assistant principal at South Medford High School. "You have 1,700 kids and they're getting them not only from boyfriends and girlfriends but parents and grandparents." Schools in Phoenix, Central Point and Eagle Point welcome floral tokens of affection, however, even if it means an attendance office full of bud vases and heart-shaped balloons. "In years past, we've had over 100 deliveries," recalls Margaret Wahl, office manager at Phoenix High School. "But we're going to continue. It's kind of a neat tradition and it doesn't bother us." As might be expected, sending Valentine's Day flowers and gifts is popular with students at schools where it's allowed. "I think it's a good idea because it makes you feel special," says Jessica Lavarias, 15, a Crater High School freshman. She has been the recipient of in-school birthday bouquets. The floral gifts are also in favor with the folks who sell them. "Crater is the best school in the valley for being workable with our staff," says Dorothy Griffiths of Central Point Florist. "We usually run two to three vanloads over (on Valentine's Day." In cities like Ashland, where high school floral deliveries recently were discontinued, orders went down with the decree. "Part of the thrill was getting it delivered in class," says Lou Ann David, owner of Flowertyme Design Co. in Ashland. Most schools that allow flower deliveries do so with strict rules: Classes may not be interrupted and students may pick them up only during lunch or after school. That's to avert logistical chaos and to spare feelings of students who don't receive gifts. "I think some kids did feel bad because they didn't get things," says DeEtta Hernandez, 16, a South Medford junior who recalls when deliveries were allowed. "It didn't bother me, though." Hurt feelings are just part of high school, figures Crater High Principal Ron Williams. "Some kids are dealing with that every day," he says. "There are the kids who have the Pacific Trail jackets and the Nike shoes and those who don't. You feel for them every day. But we don't curb our policies to deal with that." Schools that discontinued deliveries did so for good reasons, concludes Claudia Steinbroner, mother of Vanessa Dudley, 14, an Ashland High freshman. "I can be sympathetic because they don't want to be a delivery service and kids who don't get things might feel bad," says Steinbroner, who once sent her daughter a balloon to elementary school. "But still," she adds, a little wistfully, "It's kind of nice to have something special. I know I like flowers delivered to me." Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA