Mother calls for stiffer punishment for student-athlete accused of urinating into her son's drink

VIVIAN, Louisiana -- Was it a "prank?" Or was it assault?

A mother is pushing for harsher punishment -- and possible criminal and civil court action -- over a student who tampered with her son's drink at in just about the grossest way possible at North Caddo High School in Vivian, Louisiana.

Michelle Young's anger was made worse when another student who tampered with someone's drink at the school received much stiffer punishment.

As for her son, Young said it was at baseball practice on January 26th when a teammate urinated into her son's drink. Her son drank it.

"When I picked him up at practice, he was just shaking," Young recalls.

She later learned what happened, and school officials learned who did it.

Originally, that student-athlete's punishment was two days in-school suspension. After Young complained about that, the punishment became two days suspension from school.

But Young was still angered by how school officials handled it.

"They said 'it was just a prank or a dare.' I didn't see anything funny about it whatsoever," Young says, adding that Principal Annie Cherry decided the punishment for the offender, who she says is a star athlete.

"That's just favoritism," Young said.

She says that because she soon learned that another student, sophomore Clayton Spurlin, was expelled from all Caddo public schools for two years for tampering with a drink at school. It was his teacher's drink that Spurlin gave a quick spray of air freshener.

"I guess at the moment I was joking around or something," Spurlin said, adding that he was not trying to harm the teacher.

"He was just trying to be funny," says Spurlin's mother, Lacy Davis.

Davis said she's disappointed with her son's action, but she said the teacher did not drink from the cup and accepted her son's apology. Davis also said her son has not been in trouble before.

So about that two-year expulsion?

"Livid is not even the word to use as to how I felt then," Davis said, adding "I feel like they got (the punishment)backwards."

The moms believe the boy who urinated into the cup that Young's son drank from is the one who should be expelled. Young was further frustrated when she said school board officials suggested her son go to another school.

"I shouldn't have to move my son to a different school. Something should be done to the kids that are bullying my child," she says.

She said during football season, her son was locked in a locker for 20 minutes before a coach got him out, and she said he's continued to face ridicule and threats over the drink incident.

"I don't think it's fair, by no means, that my kid was constantly picked on on the ball team and ended up quitting baseball -- something he loved and enjoyed -- and this boy's playing ball," Young said of the offender.

Principal Annie Cherry's office referred KTSB to the Caddo Schools spokeswoman, Mary Nash Wood, who responded only with a written statement that said in part, "Caddo Parish Public Schools follows all Caddo Parish School Board approved policies in accordance with applicable laws. If there are concerns in regard to a student's punishment there is an appeals process in place to ensure the appropriate discipline is applied for any behavior infractions."

But Young said that appeals process did not include her son as the victim -- so she's pushing for legal action, not only in civil court, but criminal as well.

Caddo Chief Deputy District Attorney Wilbert Pryor said the case is being prosecuted, though he would not comment further since it involves a juvenile.

Meantime, Spurlin's expulsion has been knocked down to one year. He gets a second appeals hearing on Tuesday, March 21st, when he hopes to get his punishment reduced further.

KTSB contacted the mother of the boy who urinated into the drink of Young's son. She declined to comment for this story.