EVERETT David Whittemore can return to Cascade High School for his senior year after all.
Whittemore, 17, got caught using a school computer to publish an underground student newspaper in June, despite being warned not to do so. Whittemore was suspended, and in August, Everett School District Superintendent Carol Whitehead denied his request to come back for his senior year. Whittemore lives outside of the district boundaries and had to make a special request to attend Cascade.
However, after a closed hearing between the teen and Whitehead last Wednesday, the Everett School Board decided to let Whittemore return.
There are several conditions, including restrictions on his use of school computers and attendance guidelines.
“I get to graduate with my friends and go to Cascade all four years,” Whittemore said. “I believe the restrictions are reasonable, and I hold my education at Cascade higher than just about anything else school related.”
Classes begin in Everett today.
Whittemore said he was surprised during the disciplinary hearing that Whitehead laid out recommendations allowing him to return the Cascade.
“The board obviously loves Carol Whitehead,” Whittemore said. “To have her suggest that, something that would help me come back, was a bit of a surprise. I’m really thankful.”
School officials said they can’t talk about disciplinary issues involving individual students.
“We want students to understand right from wrong and go through a process that helps them understand right from wrong,” said Mary Waggoner, a school district spokeswoman.
Whittemore is undecided about whether he will try to work for the school-sanctioned student newspaper, The Stehekin.
The Everett School District last week settled a lawsuit with two former Everett High School student editors filed in 2005 after administrators demanded to review each issue of that school’s student newspaper, The Kodak, before publication.
After that, students at Everett and Cascade high schools published newspapers off school grounds. Whittemore was managing editor of the Free Stehekin, Cascade’s underground newspaper, when he was caught using a Cascade school computer to download files from his e-mail account onto a personal laptop. That incident and “a significant number of unexcused absences” over a two-year period were cited when Whittemore was initially denied admission to Cascade for the current school year.
Still unresolved is the status of Cascade High School journalism teacher Kay Powers, who has been under administrative leave pending an investigation of whether she had a role in the publication of the Free Stehekin.
The case was turned over to an independent investigator, and the district is waiting for a final report, Waggoner said. A teacher has been hired to fill her position while the issue is being resolved.
Whittemore said he had already registered at Kamiak High School in the Mukilteo School District for his senior year.
“I’m just excited I get to come back,” he said.
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