Haddonfield superintendent of schools Alan Fegley said today that an attorney's claim that the Board of Education retaliated against a 15-year-old student was "an attempt to grab headlines."
Matthew Wolf, the attorney for a female student who was charged with an alcohol-related offense in November 2009 was quoted on KYW NewsRadio on Tuesday (March 16) as saying that the student had been "kicked off the lacrosse team."
In order to participate in school sports, students and their parents must sign permission forms that include an acknowledgment of consequences for infractions of the Board of Education's 24/7 drug and alcohol policy.
KWY quoted the attorney as saying that the student's father "initially returned the form allowing his daughter to play, with edits, eliminating words saying he agreed with the 24/7 drug and alcohol policy." In a cover letter submitted with the signed form the father wrote, "I believe the 24/7 policy is unconstitutional and I am signing this under duress."
In response to the news report, Superintendent Fegley said that the parents' refusal to sign "without attaching letters or crossing out parts of the permission form, is the reason [the student] is currently not participating in a spring sport."
"By crossing out portions of the permission form or attaching letters to the permission form," he said, "they are trying to set their own rules."
"As soon as the permission form is signed, without alterations, by [the student] and her parents, [she] will be allowed to participate," Fegley said.
