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Ashland board nixes expulsion of debaters By DAMIAN MANN ASHLAND - Somebody on the debate team may have smoked marijuana last June, but a divided school board decided Tuesday night against the expulsion of two of its top seniors because of conflicting evidence. The board voted 3-2 to retract an earlier decision calling for the expulsion of Jackson Myers and Luke Schreiber, both 17, who were part of a team of seven students that went to a national debate team championship in Oklahoma City. A Eugene coach said she smelled marijuana smoke coming from the bathroom of a hotel room where five of the boys were staying. Based on statements from the coach and two debate team members, the school administration determined Myers and Schreiber should be expelled. Board member Terry Littleton, visibly shaken by the proceedings, said her involvement with community members made her decision approving the expulsion extremely difficult. Board member Chuck Keil also voted to uphold the expulsions. "It is extremely difficult for me to be involved in this at all," said Littleton. She believes that support for the district's drug and alcohol policy in general is lacking. "There is a significant, well-informed part of our community that doesn't buy into it," she said. Even so, board members generally agreed that somebody was smoking marijuana in that hotel room. Board member Kent Provost said, "It is my suspicion that not everyone is telling the truth." Almost 100 community members, most of whom supported the two boys, turned out for the hearing. Afterward, Myers said, "I am relieved the whole thing is over." Schreiber, who like Myers has an almost straight-A grade point average, said he was surprised at the board's decision, but wasn't planning to celebrate because he needed to study for school. To prove his innocence, Schreiber took a urine test and lie detector test. The district decided not to take this evidence into consideration because it was not normally a part of its procedure in expulsion matters. A later appeal to Jackson Education Service District Superintendent Joe Crowder, who acted as an independent hearing officer, also didn't take the evidence into account. Attorney Jeni Feinberg, one of two attorneys representing Schreiber, said a urinalysis was taken three days after the incident. "It is illegal for the district to refuse to hear evidence that proves the innocence of that student if the evidence is provided by that student," said Feinberg. "Are you satisfied that Luke's constitutional rights were not violated?" She argued that a Eugene coach who smelled marijuana couldn't identify Schreiber as one of the students in the bathroom of the hotel room. Testimony by two other students was conflicting, she said, and should be ignored. "'Student one' exonerated Luke Schreiber, but later retracted that statement," said Feinberg. Responding to attorneys' calls to allow consideration of more evidence, Superintendent Juli Di Chiro said, "This is not a court of law." It was her belief, backed up by school board members, that the rules that govern court proceedings do not apply to administrative law. She also said that polygraph tests and urinalysis are not normally used in determining whether to expel a student. Referring to the two students who had provided testimony, Di Chiro said, "Neither student one nor student two changed their testimony at any time." But Feinberg countered that statements made by the students were later retracted. Attorney Tim Gerking, representing Myers, said his client was prejudged as guilty by debate team coach John Tredway. He also charged the administrators attempted to scare and intimidate Myers into admitting something he hadn't done. Gerking also argued that when the students were in the hotel room, paid for by their parents, they were not part of a school-sponsored activity, but were merely "on a trip." School board members, in making their decision, agreed to consider the urinalysis, the polygraph test and other evidence that was not previously discussed. Board member John Maurer said the debate team has been very successful in Ashland, but it has also "run a little wild" from time to time. "Is the debate team so good that they're not responsible for what they do?" he questioned. Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.