Rio Mesa Student Arrested in Campus Protest Faces Possible Expulsion : Oxnard: The high school senior is accused of shoving a teacher during the rowdy demonstration over a new tardy policy.

Until last week’s student revolt over school tardy policies, Rio Mesa High School senior Ryan Genest was having a pretty good year.

He had scored well on his college entrance exams and was seeking entry into state college. He was looking forward to taking his girlfriend to the senior prom. And he was eagerly anticipating the pomp and ceremony of graduation.

But the 18-year-old Camarillo youth may have sacrificed all of that for his role in a student walk-out last Tuesday.

Genest, one of 20 students arrested during the rowdy protest, was told by school officials that he could be expelled for allegedly shoving a teacher during the disturbance. He is the only student involved in the protest facing expulsion.

“I didn’t hit anybody,” said Genest, who will learn whether he can return to Rio Mesa after serving a five-day suspension. “All I want to do is go back to school. I just wish none of this ever happened, I wish it was all just a bad dream. I’m really sorry. And I’ve learned my lesson.”

Principal Eric Ortega said school officials are gathering information about the incident, but confirmed that Genest was told that he could face expulsion if the allegation proves true.

“What I think everybody needs to know is that we will not tolerate that kind of behavior,” Ortega said. “Expulsion is a very severe move; we certainly wouldn’t take that lightly.”

More than 150 students walked out of class Tuesday in a demonstration over a new tardy policy viewed by protesters as unfair and heavy-handed, but deemed necessary by school officials.

Under the new rules, students who are late to class twice receive one hour of after-school detention. If there are more tardy notices, students continue to get detention until the sixth infraction, when they have to attend school on Saturday. For the eighth tardy, there is a one-day suspension from school. On the 10th they are dropped from class.

Prior to adopting the new policy, Rio Mesa had no uniform policy. Punishments for tardiness to class were set by individual teachers.

The early morning protest started as a peaceful demonstration but turned violent when students shattered windows and refused to return to class.

A short time later, 20 sheriff’s patrol cars and six California Highway Patrol units had converged on the El Rio campus.

After warning students to go back to class, sheriff’s deputies wearing riot helmets swept across the campus and arrested 20 students on suspicion of unlawful assembly and failure to disperse.

With the exception of Genest and another student who was later exonerated, all of those arrested were suspended for 2 1/2 days. Because Genest is accused of shoving a teacher, he received a five-day suspension.

Of the students who were arrested, Ortega said Genest is the only one facing expulsion.

Genest said he is not a troublemaker. He said he gets mostly Bs and Cs on his report cards, and that during his first two years of high school he was an honor student.

The rail-thin teen-ager plays electric guitar in a rock band that practices in the garage of his Camarillo hills home.

Genest said a friend called him the night before the protest to tell him it was taking place. And after first period, at about 9 a.m., demonstrators gathered in the student quad and then started to march around the campus. The students entered the administration office but were quickly shooed away.

He said it was then, as he stood in the middle of the crowd and as office workers pushed students outside, that he bumped into a teacher.

“I feel way badly about that now,” said Genest, who maintains that any contact was accidental. “All I did was walk around and make noise like everybody else.”

Ortega said he plans to find out whether Genest’s story is true.

After information is gathered, Ortega will decide whether to seek expulsion. If he decides expulsion is warranted, he will make that recommendation to a panel of district administrators.

That panel will make a recommendation to members of the Oxnard Union High School District Board of Trustees who have the final say.

“I certainly respect the students’ right to demonstrate peacefully,” Ortega said. “Believe me, we would not expel a student for youthful enthusiasm.”

If Genest is expelled, he will not be allowed to attend school within the district. He could attend a private school or try to get into a school in another district, Ortega said.

Genest said he hopes it doesn’t come to that.

“I won’t make any more trouble,” he said. “I just want to graduate. Once I’m done, I’m gone.”