Court Says 6 Suspended Poway Students Can Return to School

A judge ruled Friday that six Poway High School students, suspended and then transferred to another school for having alcohol in their possession at a Colorado ski trip during spring break, should be reinstated at Poway and their disciplinary records expunged.

San Diego Superior Court Judge Richard Huffman found that the school failed to adequately notify the students and their parents that it was the sponsor of the mid-April ski trip to the Marriott Hotel in Vail, Colo., said Judith Descalso, the attorney who represented the six students.

Huffman ordered the Poway Unified School District to let the students return to Poway. They were suspended for five days and transferred to Mount Carmel High School upon their return, Descalso said.

The students--Lief Gigstad, 18; Craig Chambers, 18; Jeffrey Galka, 17; Roberta Wood, 16; Jennifer Sarkozy, 16, and Michael Torres, 17--will return to Poway High on Monday and the incident will not appear on their permanent disciplinary records, she said.

The situation needed to be resolved as soon as possible because three of the students involved were seniors who wanted to participate in graduation and all other end-of-the-year activities at Poway, Descalso said.

Happy to Return

Gigstad, one of the graduating seniors, said he was happy to be returning to Poway but felt school administrators might be watching he and the others involved more closely from now on.

“I have the feeling that they (the school administrators) want us to keep as low a profile as possible and not cause any disruptions,” Gigstad said.

Before the ski trip, they and their parents signed a contract stating that if alcohol or drugs were found in their possession they would be sent home at their own expense, she said. On the fifth day of the trip, unopened and empty bottles of alcohol were found by chaperones in the students’ rooms and they were sent home, Descalso said.

However, she said there was no mention in the contract that the school was sponsoring the event and would take further disciplinary action if alcohol was found.

“The contracts the parents and student signed had the name of a tour company (Sports America Tours) and not the school,” Descalso said. “There were no trip-permit forms required by the school, checks were made payable to the tour company, private charter company buses were used, and private insurance was obtained.”

The district’s attorney, Clifford Weiler, said the students were aware that the ski trip was a school-sponsored trip. He said the literature was distributed at the school, and the school’s name appeared on the literature.

“The main issue was whether they knew the trip was sponsored by (the school) and whether they knew the school disciplinary rules would be applied,” Weiler said. “We felt they were adequately informed but the judge disagreed.”