SANTA ANA : Ousted Student to Start at New School

Edmund Cronin, the student who was kicked out of Foothill High School after helping to organize a pro-homework demonstration, is scheduled to start classes at Santa Ana High School today.

An employee in the school’s counseling office said Cronin took a test on Wednesday to determine his grade level and took home a registration packet to fill out.

“The only thing I’ve got to do is sign some papers,” said Alan Cronin, Edmund’s father.

Cronin’s enrollment at another school was apparently delayed because necessary paper work from Foothill was unavailable. At least one of Cronin’s teachers, who disagreed with the principal’s decision to revoke Cronin’s interdistrict transfer, refused to sign withdrawal papers. But Steve Frogue, Cronin’s former history teacher, said he and other teachers signed the papers after the Cronins asked them to. All six of Cronin’s teachers went to the principal last week and protested his decision, Frogue said.

Cronin organized a sit-in last week along with several other juniors because of a decision by some teachers to stop assigning homework in protest of stalled contract negotiations. The students claimed the decision hurt their education.

Administrators said Cronin was kicked out not for organizing the demonstration but for repeated discipline problems, the most recent being an argument with the principal during the demonstration. Cronin maintains he did not argue with the principal.

Alan Cronin, who asked the board to reconsider the revocation of the interdistrict transfer, said he does not know whether he will continue to fight his son’s ouster from the Tustin Unified School District. Cronin, 17, transferred to Foothill High School last year because many of his friends go there.