XPost: alt.education, alt.true-crime, pdx.general   
   XPost: or.politics   
   From: pjberg@webtv.net   
      
   ~   
   From The (Portland) Oregonian - July 14, 2007   
      
   VERNONIA (Oregon) -- Chatter filled the hot, hazy air here Friday, from   
   a swimming hole where wrestlers backflip off long knotted ropes to a   
   senior center thrift shop where tutting ladies pursed their mouths, from   
   the local credit union where tellers came to tears to the hardware and   
   auto parts stores where regulars spoke like oracles: The fate of Aaron   
   Miller was on the minds and lips of Vernonians.   
      
   And so was the fate of Miller's champion, Kenneth Cox.   
      
   Miller is the elementary school principal who admitted smoking pot last   
   week when a deputy questioned him at Fort Stevens State Park near   
   Warrenton; Cox is the school superintendent who welcomed a school board   
   decision Thursday that leaves the principal on the job.   
      
   Vernonia is the school district whose decision to randomly test athletes   
   for drugs was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1995.   
      
   It's the kind of small former logging town where summer vacation equals   
   fresh-air boredom -- in the woods, along the reservoir, beside the   
   creek, behind the diner. Canopies of towering fir and cedar shade   
   fishing holes. A pioneer museum draws visitors down the main   
   thoroughfare, which crosses one bridge midtown and another on the way   
   out. Yes, it's called Bridge Street.   
      
   A police blotter in The Independent, the weekly newspaper, offers what   
   you might expect in a place with a population of 2,300: 10 people   
   stopped for riding bikes without helmets; a runaway taken to social   
   services; two minors released to their parents after being found with   
   liquor; a woman arrested for possession of controlled substances; drug   
   paraphernalia found and destroyed.   
      
   "It's rural Oregon," said Jay Nesmith, behind the counter of Vernonia   
   Hardware. "We've got that laid-back, lefty hippie lifestyle going on   
   here."   
      
   Meaning: Drugs haunt this place.   
      
   Signs near the school campus shared by grade, middle and high school   
   students warn it is a "Tobacco Free Zone." The local chapter of the   
   Lions Club -- to which Miller, 41, belongs -- supports a program to   
   educate kids about the dangers of drugs such as marijuana. Students on   
   sports teams face random urine tests. Failure can lead to suspension,   
   costly drug rehab classes, loss of ranking.   
   Miller will face undisclosed disciplinary consequences.   
      
   "I have been accused of setting a double standard in taking this   
   action," Cox wrote in a statement posted on the district's Web site   
   Friday. "I believe, however, that I have set a higher standard for   
   Vernonia administrators than for other staff members. Mr. Miller will be   
   dealt with in a fashion similar to, but more severe than, that which we   
   deal with students. If a student is caught using drugs they face   
   consequences -- but being summarily expelled from school is not one of   
   them."   
      
   "They let him slide"   
      
   The decision to allow Miller to stay was met with relief at the Vernonia   
   Country Kitchen, where Shawnna Lloyd delivered baskets of bacon burgers   
   and grilled ham-and-cheese sandwiches to a pair of patrons.   
      
   "He's a nice guy," she said, echoing many here where even childless   
   residents keep track of teachers and coaches.   
      
   Her fifth-grade daughter, Melissa, and kindergartner, Christopher,   
   attend Washington Grade School, where Miller is the popular principal.   
      
   Popularity aside, lifeguard John Murray wondered how students would   
   react to what amounted to "a slap on the wrist."   
      
   "They let him slide," said Murray, 47, never taking his eyes off the   
   river, dammed for summer, where a dozen kids paddled. "What a horrible   
   example for them. He's supposed to be a role model. I think he should   
   have been removed."   
   Irving Russell, on a bench outside the senior center, agreed.   
      
   "They raise hell about kids and drugs," said the 75-year-old retired   
   bridge inspector, "and then when the principal comes along -- who knows   
   better -- they exonerate him. Seems to me he and the superintendent   
   should be brought down."   
      
   Teens shrug it off   
      
   Just out of town, high school wrestlers Tylor Owen, 16, and Zack   
   Nutting, 15, swung from ropes at the idyllic swimming hole, an elbow in   
   the creek where crawdads troll underfoot.   
      
   Neither had been born when the school district started mandatory drug   
   testing of its athletes in 1989, nor two years later when a   
   seventh-grader, James Acton, refused to take a drug test as part of a   
   tryout for middle school football. He was banned from playing, and his   
   parents sued the school district. The case made it to the U.S. Supreme   
   Court in 1995, and in a 6-3 decision, justices upheld the district's   
   policy.   
      
   But between splashes, the teens said they knew about the history and   
   about current rules that test them during the wrestling season. They   
   mentioned classmates and friends who faced discipline for dabbling in   
   drugs. It didn't seem fair, they said.   
      
   Still, they shrugged off Miller's conduct in the state park, where   
   Deputy Chance Moore approached the principal after sunset and smelled   
   marijuana. When he asked whether Miller had been smoking pot, the   
   onetime baseball coach and teacher became visibly upset and said, "I   
   could be in a lot of trouble for this, but, yes, I have been smoking   
   marijuana."   
      
   The Vernonia School Board called the incident a single act of "poor   
   judgment," adding that Miller had voiced "very sincere remorse for his   
   actions."   
      
   Owen and Nutting were also willing to let bygones be.   
      
   "I don't think he should be taken out just for this," Owen said.   
      
   Nutting chimed in, tugging the rope before swinging into the still air:   
   "It's just pot."   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)