May 27, 2005

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Palo Alto Online

Parent wants student banned from graduation ceremony

by Alexandria Rocha

A parent angrily denounced the principal and administration of Palo Alto High School for allowing a student arrested for shoving a girl to attend the site's graduation ceremonies.

Steve Mullen, whose two daughters attend Paly, asked Board of Education members Tuesday "to do the right thing and deny the attacker the privilege" of attending next month's senior events.

On May 18, Mullen's oldest daughter, a friend and two teachers witnessed a senior boy push his girlfriend against a locker on the Paly campus, according to reports from police and Mullen.

Police were summoned and the boy was cited for a misdemeanor under California's domestic violence code, said Detective Wayne Benitez. The youth was also suspended from campus for three days.

With the approval of Paly Principal Scott Laurence and his staff, the boy will be allowed to attend three upcoming end-of-year activities, including the graduation rehearsal and ceremony held on the Paly campus and a baccalaureate service at Stanford University. He will not attend any social events, such as the senior picnic or grad night, said school board Vice President Mandy Lowell.

Upset by the arrangement, Mullen accused school officials of failing to properly investigate the incident. He made other accusations, but many remain unclear because of confidentiality laws -- all the students involved are under 18.

Mullen said Paly administrators and police failed to notify the victim's parents of the incident. He contended the parents didn't learn what happened until his daughter and a friend informed another adult Saturday night.

Marilyn Cook, a district assistant superintendent, said it would normally fall on the school's shoulders to notify the parents of students connected to criminal activity. When the police are called in, however, that responsibility shifts onto law enforcement, she added.

"If the police are involved, the police notify parents," Cook said. "If an investigation is being carried out by police, the district doesn't get involved."

Police Capt. Dennis Burns said the officer involved is on vacation, leaving the department no way of knowing whether the victim's parents were contacted.

Benitez, however, said he is surprised the incident has received any attention.

"If it were two guys fighting, this would have been a non-issue. But because it was a dating situation, the domestic-violence laws took effect," he said. "We took the case very seriously, we did make an arrest. This was not brushed under the carpet by any means."

None of the other parents involved could be reached for comment.

Further complicating matters, Mullen said the boy does not live in Palo Alto and has illegally attended Paly for three years. Mullen, who has actively campaigned against the district's June parcel tax election, denied this claim has anything to do with Measure A. However, the issue of non-resident students has been pushed by opponents of the initiative.

"It is kind of serendipitous having an illegal student involved," Mullen told the Weekly.

Marie Scigliano, director of the district's central attendance office, said Mullen's accusation was the first time the district had heard the boy may not live in Palo Alto. She said even though school is out in two weeks, a full investigation has started.

"We haven't had mail returned or anything that would possibly trigger an investigation," Scigliano said. "This doesn't happen quickly. It takes a couple days. If we have reasonable assurance that the student doesn't live in the district we'll send some notification to the parents."

As far as the boy attending graduation ceremonies, Lowell said the proper decision was already made by Paly administrators to ban the boy from the social events.

"I don't think it's a safety issue at a grad ceremony where people are sitting in a quiet crowd," she said. "There's a great deal of supervision."

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