Pubdate: Tue, 28 Oct 2014
Source: Blade, The (Toledo, OH)
Copyright: 2014 The Blade
Contact:  http://www.toledoblade.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/48
Author: Jennifer Feehan, Blade Staff Writer

SUSPICIOUS POWDER LEADS TO COURT FIGHT

Girl Brought Mixture in for Class Assignment

An Anthony Wayne Junior High School student who said she mixed flour
and sugar to simulate drugs for a classroom assignment has been
accused of bringing the real thing to school.

The eighth grader's parents, Kristine and Joseph Urenovitch of
Whitehouse, went to court seeking an order that would prevent the
school from suspending their daughter until the powdery mixture is
tested in a lab by the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation.

Mr. Urenovitch, a lawyer who filed the complaint, said the rush to
judgment -- and a proposed 10-day suspension -- was based on a
preliminary field test conducted by Whitehouse police.

"We were just trying to slow the process down so they can get the
final results. They're making the decision before the final results
are in," he said, adding that he and his wife are "100 percent behind
our daughter that she did not have drugs. We do not feel that she had
any involvement with drugs."

After convening a hearing late Friday, Judge Stacy Cook of Lucas
County Common Pleas Court granted a temporary restraining order
prohibiting the Anthony Wayne Local Schools from proceeding with
disciplinary action against the student until BCI tests the substance
purported to contain the painkiller, oxycodone.

Anthony Wayne Superintendent Jim Fritz said Monday that he could not
discuss specifics of the allegations, but emphasized that the school
had not suspended the student and had not held a "due process" hearing
- -- in which the student has the opportunity to tell her side of the
story -- before her parents filed the complaint in court.

"It's highly irregular that this would happen and a judge would grant
this temporary restraining order," Mr. Fritz said.

"We're still trying to understand why."

To Mr. Urenovitch, it seemed the school was treating his daughter as
guilty before proven innocent. The school district's attorney, Dane
Gaschen of Bricker & Eckler, LLP, in Columbus, said he "wouldn't agree
with that at all. There are other facts that apparently you may not be
aware of, but the school district can't discuss those."

Mr. Gaschen said the district was following procedures spelled out in
Ohio law, but he declined to say more, citing federal privacy laws.

"The district would get in trouble legally for discussing
student-related matters," he said.

According to the complaint, the 13-year-old was doing a project for
her language arts class that involved "identification and discussion
of overdoses from controlled substances. She prepared her project at
home using a container, baggie, paper, flour, sugar, and Tic Tacs."

The student reportedly presented the project to her class on Thursday
"and sometime afterwards the container holding some of the extra
flour, sugar, and Tic Tacs was given to another student.

"The other student took the container and gave it to another student,
who eventually delivered the container to the school district."

Whitehouse police Chief Mark McDonough said one of his officers tested
the substance and informed the school that it tested positive for
"codeine-based substances."

The field test, which was conducted with a testing kit in the office,
is "not 100 percent reliable," he said.

"However, they're enough to get us to the next level of testing, so
that's what we are going to be doing with the substance."

Chief McDonough said an officer would be taking the substance to the
BCI lab in Bowling Green today.

He did not know how long it would take to get results.

Field tests, he added, do not reveal the amount of a drug contained in
the sample, but only show "a presence" of the drug that's being tested
for.

Robert Forney, chief toxicologist for the Lucas County Coroner's
Office, said there are no ingredients in sugar, flour, or Tic Tacs
that would give a false positive for oxycodone.

Sending the substance to BCI is the best plan of action, he said,
explaining that field tests are "what we call presumptive tests. ...
There is no reasonable degree of certainty in a presumptive test. All
a presumptive test does is prompt another test."

The temporary restraining order is in effect for 14
days.

Further hearing on the matter was set for Nov. 5 before Judge Cook.
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MAP posted-by: Richard