School Buys Teen’s Story About Drugs

A teenager who was arrested and expelled for buying marijuana in what he insisted was a bid to expose drug dealing at his school has been reinstated.

The School Board voted 7-4 Thursday to let 15-year-old Kevin Maxey return to Cloutierville Elementary School.

Maxey said he bought the half-smoked cigarette from a schoolmate because students had been harassing him to buy drugs and because he wanted to show administrators the school had a drug problem.

After he took the cigarette to a school official, sheriff’s deputies arrested him Oct. 13 for possession of marijuana on campus. Three other students were later arrested for possession after Maxey identified them.

School Board member Link Hall said he was convinced the boy thought he was doing the right thing.

Kevin will probably transfer to a private school because he might face danger from the schoolmates who sold him the cigarette, said his father, Carl.