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Jenna Ross cannot participate in the color guard competitions while a court action against Warsaw Community High School is pending.
The 15-year-old Warsaw girl and her mother filed a lawsuit against the school in September after she was suspended from the squad for allegedly drinking beer in June. She became a member of the color guard in May.
Ross and her mother, Carrie Davis, also filed a motion seeking a preliminary injunction to keep Ross on the squad while the case was pending. That motion has been denied.
Ross and her mother claim that Ross was unfairly suspended for allegedly violating the school's drug and alcohol policy. Steve Hearn of Lemon, Armey, Hearn & Leininger is their attorney.
Ross was suspended from participation in the WCHS color guard for the 1999-2000 school year because of the alleged violation. She was one of six teens reportedly charged with illegal consumption of alcohol by a minor after Warsaw police responded to a complaint of an underage drinking party at a Warsaw residence.
Because the alleged incident occurred off school grounds and during a time when school was not in session, it didn't interfere with school purposes or an education function, the plaintiffs allege.
A school review committee earlier decided that Ross could continue to practice, travel and otherwise perform except in competitions.
The case was filed in Kosciusko Superior Court I and Circuit Court Judge Rex Reed presided over the matter after Judge Duane Huffer recused himself from the case. Reed took the matter under advisement after an Oct. 7 hearing and his decision to deny a request for a preliminary injunction was filed last week.
In court documents, Reed pointed out that that "prior to or simultaneously with trying out for the Color Guard, the Plaintiff, Jenna, and her mother, Carrie Davis, signed a 'Color Guard Contract,' which provided, among other things, that if Jenna was selected as a Color Guard member, she would abide by all Warsaw Community High School rules and regulations."
This included sanctions for conduct that a first violation of the drug and alcohol policy would result in suspension for a calendar year from an extracurricular activity.
Court documents also show that both Ross and Davis admitted that Ross had "drunk one beer." She was 14 years old when the alleged offense occurred.
Part of the dispute involves the fact that Ross and her parents did not receive a "letter of suspension" as called for by school policy, Reed wrote in the "conclusions of law" portion of the seven-page document that "actual notice of the meeting was given ... (and) The error, if any, was clearly harmless."
Reed denied both the preliminary injunction and the motion by the school for judgment on the pleadings. The case remains pending in Kosciusko Superior Court I.
