STINK BOMB OFFENDERS FORGIVEN

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, February 9, 1993                   TAG: 9302090311
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Landmark News Service
DATELINE: NORFOLK                                LENGTH: Short
STINK BOMB OFFENDERS FORGIVEN
The Norfolk school system has decided against expelling two sixth-grade boys suspended for handling a "stink bomb" last month in Blair Middle School, a school official confirmed Monday.
A Blair Middle School teacher found the "stink bomb" Jan. 21 on sixth-grader James Wagner. Joshua Broussard, another sixth-grader, had given it to him.
The two were automatically suspended and recommended for expulsion because the school officials said they believed the device qualified as "fireworks/explosives," which are banned from schools.
Broussard's mother, Ruth Lord, said the "stink bomb" was not an explosive, but merely a vial of water and ammonium sulfide, which releases a smell similar to rotten eggs.
Because Broussard has a "visual/perceptual" disability, school officials met with his parents last Tuesday to see if the incident had anything to do with his disability.
At the hearing, school officials discovered they had failed to send Broussard's parents information required by federal law governing special education about why he had changed classes in the fall. Lord said they decided to let him go back to school Wednesday rather than face legal problems.
This case - along with a suspension of her older daughter for refusing to take off a shirt with the words "Drugs suck!" - has soured Lord on the public schools.
In a separate hearing, Wagner was reinstated Friday and returned to school Monday.

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB