Court Rules Against Weston High School Student in Marijuana Cookie Case

The legal battle involving a Weston High School senior and a cookie laced with marijuana is heading back to court, according to an article in the Boston Globe.

The Weston High School student, identified in court documents as "Robert Doe," was expelled by school officials after another student identified him as the supplier of a marijuana cookie in March 2010, after which Doe refused to discuss what happened with administrators. A Superior Court judge later reinstated the student to school with certain conditions.

But last week, the state’s highest court overturned Judge Dennis Curran’s decision, finding that he abused his discretion when he ordered school administrators to allow the boy to return to school, according to the Boston Globe article.

The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court heard arguments in October about Doe's .

That case was an appeal by Weston Schools Superintendent Cheryl Maloney following the student's expulsion by the school system, but ultimate return to school last year after a preliminary injunction overturned the schools' initial expulsion.

According to court documents, Doe claimed his rights to due process and equal protection were violated when he was expelled in mid-2010. School officials say Doe provided another student with a marijuana cookie, but Doe refused to answer any questions about the incident, to either Weston Police or the superintendent. 

His silence was taken as assent, and due to his expulsion, Doe ended up missing the second half of his junior year, and had to repeat it. He is currently a senior at Weston High.

Maloney is seeking to overturn the injunction that put Doe back in school, though her attorney, Leonard H. Kesten, told the judges in October that the high school would not necessarily expel Doe if the injunction were overturned.

But according to the Boston Globe article, Kesten said school officials will not agree to remove the incident from the boy’s disciplinary record and that school officials did not agree to conditions the judge put in place for the boy’s return to school, including wiping the incident from the boy’s record.

When in October associate Justice Ralph D. Gants asked Kesten if Doe was being expelled because of his refusal to speak to administrators about the issue, Kesten indicated that that that wasn't the issue.

"He's being expelled because he sold marijuana in the school and showed absolutely no clue that this was a problem - his reaction was 'you can't prove it, I'll do it again'," said Kesten.

Court documents indicate that before ruling on Doe's motion for a preliminary injunction, the judge shared several observations from the bench, saying, "Other parents--maybe not these parents, but other parents don't want their kids to be associated with other kids who are bringing drugs into the school. And I--I think that happened. I have very little doubt that that happened."