Students Protest Ouster of Tustin Schoolmates
About 50 students walked out of classes at Foothill High School in Tustin on Thursday morning to protest the school district’s decision to transfer several classmates found to have consumed alcohol at a school-approved retreat.
The nine students, whose names have not been released, were suspended from school under Tustin Unified School District’s zero-tolerance policy, which requires that students caught using drugs or alcohol during school-sanctioned events be suspended, then transferred to other schools in the district.
“The policy is very clear, and these were student leaders involved in this,” said Mark Eliot, a spokesman for Tustin Unified. “Everyone receives a parent student-rights booklet at the beginning of the year that they have to return signed, so they’re pretty well aware of the policy.”
Foothill Principal Dan Brooks asked the students who walked out to return to class, Eliot said, and no disciplinary action was taken against them. Brooks agreed to hear their grievances at lunchtime. About five students showed up for the noontime discussion of the zero-tolerance policy.
Some of the suspended students are appealing the district’s decision and have not yet been transferred, Eliot said.
The incident occurred at the annual Orange County Leadership Council Camp, a three-day retreat at UC Santa Barbara the last weekend of August.
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