Mike on Crime

WAWOTA, Sask. (CP) — A Saskatchewan student says he was barred from classes for three days for trying to talk to his schoolmates about what he believes are the benefits of marijuana.
Kieran King, 15, was given a three-day suspension by the Wawota Parkland School after joining a protest by a handful of people outside the school Tuesday.
His brother Lucas, 14, received a similar suspension.
Kieran complains school officials were trying to force him to stop talking about marijuana to classmates, so the protest was organized to reinforce his right to free speech.
Officials with the South East Cornerstone School Division say the issue isn’t about freedom of speech at all. They say they suspended the teen for defying an order to stay inside the school during the protest.
Education director Don Rempel says the principal had decided to lock down the building during the protest because some adults were gathered outside with a loud speaker.
“There were people there trying to organize a big demonstration, calling students out of the building,” Rempel said. “If you’re responsible for the care of students, you wouldn’t want them leaving your care and being out of the building.”
He said the teen was circulating flyers urging classmates to join the protest.
Kieran had enlisted the help of the Marijuana Party of Saskatchewan and some members decided to join the protest.
The Grade 10 student, who says he doesn’t drink, smoke or do drugs, started researching marijuana after an anti-drug presentation at the school earlier this year.
“When we were presented the issue, we were not told any facts. We were simply told not to do it,” Kieran said Thursday from his home in the tiny community of Wawota, 240 kilometres east of Regina.
He said his research found marijuana has some legitimate medical uses and could not be linked to drug overdose deaths, so he started telling friends and classmates that.
Earlier this month, his mother Jo Ann Euler found herself in the midst of the controversy when school officials summoned her to complain that her son had been talking about marijuana to Grade 9 students.
Euler felt that one school official was trying to imply her son could try to sell drugs at the kindergarten through Grade 12 school.
“I said, ’Absolutely no way.’ I know Kieran. There’s no way he’d do anything like that,” she said.
The youth and his mother had been warned previously that school officials didn’t think it was appropriate for him to promote drug use at the school, Rempel said.
He doesn’t think that amounts to quashing the teen’s right to speak out.
“Condoning drug use in a school setting is inappropriate. The freedom of speech issue is really a mischaracterization of what occurred here,” Rempel said.
But Kieran insists he wasn’t promoting the use of marijuana, he was only explaining what he found out about it in his research.
Euler suggested it’s hypocritical for school officials to crack down on her son for talking about marijuana when other high school students are getting drunk on weekends.
“Kids are allowed to speak in the classroom about how drunk they got the night before and it’s a big joke,” she said.
“Kieran talked about facts of marijuana. It’s not right; something is wrong here.”
The teen, who was planning to leave for China on Thursday, wasn’t able to write his final exams because of the suspension and his trip overseas.
He expects that will dramatically cut his grades and keep him off the honour roll.
Euler, a teacher with the school division, said she worries the controversy may hurt her job prospects or leave students with the impression her son has done something illegal.
She said she’s received e-mails from people with conditions such as cerebral palsy, who use marijuana to relieve their symptoms, thanking her son for standing up for his beliefs.
“My kids may be able to help someone else,” she said.
“Other people could possibly benefit from Kieran standing up for his right to speak.”