PHS Students Charged with Selling Drugs May Be Expelled

Two Portsmouth High School students who police say were selling several types of drugs at school and were running an extensive drug operation out of their apartment will now face possible expulsion.

Portsmouth Schools Superintendent Ed McDonough said the School Board will hold a disciplinary hearing in the near future where school administrators will present their case to the board and members of the students' family will have a chance to present their side of the story.

"The disciplinary process is underway," McDonough wrote in an e-mail on Tuesday afternoon. "The policy calls for a four step process with a referral to the School Board for a disciplinary hearing. We are following the process as outlined. A meeting is scheduled for this week."

Under the Portsmouth School Board's policy adopted in 2001, McDonough said they can impose whatever punishment they deem appropriate in this case. The two students, ages 15 and 16, were automatically given a 10-day suspension following their arrest by Portsmouth Police on Feb. 5.

McDonough said the School Board could suspend the two students for a semester, an entire school year or expell both of them. If that were to happen, McDonough said the students and their family could petition the New Hampshire Board of Education to be readmitted to school once they comply with whatever conditions are imposed by the School Board.

, ketamine, bath salts, hashish, marijuana, Adderall and other prescription medications out of their Portsmouth apartment where they live with their mother. Police seized those drugs along with drug paraphernalia and other items.

McDonough said the students' family and their attorney, if they choose to have one, have the right to request a public disciplinary hearing, "but I have never seen that happen."

Because the two students are minors, the School Board disciplinary hearing will not be open to the public, but McDonough said the hearing will be posted.

McDonough said the School Board has expelled other students who have benn caught selling drugs at school since the School Board adopted its policy that prohibits the sale of alcohol and controlled substances at the city's five public schools.