JERSEY SHORE - All graduating seniors will walk in today's ceremonies at Jersey Shore Area High School's Thompson Street Stadium, but the argument about the validity of the school board's decision to ban students from graduation as punishment for allegedly attending an underage drinking party may continue.
"The school board has extended the privilege to walk in graduation to all of the students," Superintendent Richard J. Emery told the Sun-Gazette Friday morning.
The announcement came in the wake of Judge Dudley N. Anderson's court order requiring the school district to allow some students to walk; those who had been specifically named in complaints filed by attorneys Marc Drier and Joel McDermott were released from the ban, but the fate of the rest of the 16 seniors was left to the school district.
Drier said that he had prepared a motion for the judge to amend his decision but was contacted by school officials this morning.
"They told me that wouldn't be necessary," he said.
Emery was unavailable for comment Friday afternoon, but Assistant Superintendent Dr. Robert Conroy said the decision was made by school district administration after discussing the issue with the district's solicitor, J. David Smith. Conroy said no official school board vote was required, but several members were apprised of the issue.
A hearing on the complaint for injunction will be held June 14, to further discuss the issues that were hastily covered in the hearing for preliminary injunction this week.
While Drier said he expects the hearing to include "further evidence ... and a more complete ruling," he noted that not only will graduation already be over, but so will the bans on extracurricular activities that were denied to lower-classmen.
"They would also be moot at that point," he said.
McDermott said the judge's decision will affect not just the younger students involved in the case, but future generations of students as well.
"There are two things we'll want to achieve at that hearing: to give the juniors and the sophomores who were also part of this group, the benefit of the same sort of decision, where they will not be kept from extracurricular activities as a result of their (alleged) presence (at the party) ... and that they will not have this on their school record," McDermott said. "The second thing that we want to achieve is to establish a precedent that says clearly that this sort of response to a situation where students are suspected of misbehavior in a way completely unrelated to the school cannot be a basis for students being barred from school-sponsored events."
Drier said he would like to see "at the very least, better clarity (in the policy)."
More importantly, he said, the hearing will address the school board's interpretation of that policy.
"The way it was attempted to be used in this instance was the chief problem," he said.
McDermott agreed with Drier, saying the vagueness of the policy was its biggest problem.
"I think I'd like to see the policy clarified, but our main problem is the way that they've attempted to apply it," he said.
Conroy said the future of the policy depends on the outcome of the hearing, but added, "Once this situation is resolved, then we're going to really take a good look at (drug and alcohol policy) 227."
Graduation ceremonies begin at 9 a.m. today.
