TURNER – Matt Worcester was not with his Leavitt Area High School classmates at Thursday night’s Class Night for the 2005 graduates. He won’t be marching with them at graduation tonight, either, nor will he be participating in the Project Graduation event that follows at the University of Maine Farmington.
Worcester says he is being disciplined by the administrators of LAHS and SAD 52 Superintendent Thomas Hanson after being denied permission to board a bus Tuesday to go to Funtown USA, an amusement center in Saco. Worcester says the administrators wrongly accused him of being under the influence of a substance when he attempted to board the bus.
But while Hanson refused to comment, saying, “I can not violate the confidentiality of any student,” a report entitled “Matt Worcester Situation” signed by Michael H. Haley, assistant principal of LAHS, gives insights into the administration’s position.
According to the report, an assistant principal told Worcester that if he did go to Funtown on his own that he would be putting his opportunity to march (in graduation) in jeopardy. Haley mentions in his report that Worcester used an obscenity “at least four times.”
“Matt Worcester was definitely under the influence of something,” the report said.
Worcester, his family and his friends adamantly maintain that he was not under the influence of any substance Tuesday, that he was simply terribly tired. They question that if school officials truly believed him to be “under the influence of something,” why didn’t they notify his parents immediately, call authorities to deal with the situation, and permit him and his friend to drive off in a car.
This report was circulated at meetings with school administrators and Worcester and his parents, according to Matt’s mother, Eve. These meetings were held early Wednesday and Thursday, according to Worcester, and it was at them that he was informed he would not be participating in any of the graduation exercises and programs.
The situation started Tuesday morning when Worcester arrived at the LAHS parking lot to board a school bus for the senior class trip to Funtown. According to Worcester, his friends and family, he had spent Monday night at the home of a friend, playing video games virtually all night. They then drove another friend home, and on the way back had two flat tires. Worcester said they walked more than five miles, had less than half-an-hour of sleep, and went to the bus to go on the class trip.
Worcester said he was very tired and probably acted differently than usual. When on the bus, Worcester said he was called forward by Haley and confronted by him and at least three other school administrators. Worcester said they accused him of having abused some substance, which he vehemently denied.
He added that he repeatedly asked to be given a Breathalyzer test, but was ignored. He said he was standing outside the three buses with all his classmates on board and being accused of something that he said was totally false. He said the interrogation and the arguing got worse, and that one point he was feeling even more embarrassed, even more wrongly accused, and finally lost his patience. He admitted he swore at one of the teachers.
Worcester was joined in the argument with the school administrators by his friend Shawn Knight. Worcester said Knight also repeatedly asked school officials to administer a Breathalyzer, but they ignored him, as well. Worcester said that repeatedly during this confrontation the school officials told him he would not be permitted to go on the bus for the class trip, and that when he said he and his friend would go to FunTown on their own and join classmates there, they told him he was not permitted to do that, either.
Worcester says he and his friend did drive to FunTown, paid their own way in even though they had already paid an admission fee when joining the class trip, Worcester said that when he and his friend went to the car to drive to FunTown, school officials made no attempt to stop them, they made no attempt to call his parents or Knight’s parents even though they maintained they were under the influence of some substance, and that they never called police to report what they believed.
The student who will not be permitted to march at graduation said he admitted to school officials at the meetings at the school that he did swear and apologized
Worcester and his family said they are confused as to the reason for his being denied permission to go to graduation programs. He feels the reason that was given was because he swore at a teacher. His mother and others feel it was because he went to FunTown with the class, after being told he couldn’t by school officials. Worcester said he went because FunTown is an amusement park open to the public and he wanted to be with his friends.
In the “Situation” report, Haley recounts a somewhat similar series of events, but with differences in detail. Haley states he received a report that one of the class members “appeared to be under the influence'” and that his name was Matt Worcester. He adds that he boarded the bus and asked for Worcester, who didn’t answer at first, but finally did. Haley reports that when Worcester was coming down the aisle of the bus, he was “visibly staggering and stumbling. As he got off the bus he again staggered and nearly lost his balance.” Haley states at that time he had a chance to get a “first-hand look at Matt.” He goes on in the report to describe in detail what he saw.
Haley continues in his report that Worcester was told he was in no condition to go to FunTown, that school officials felt it was a safety issue, and that they felt he might be injured “due to the condition he was in.”
“There was no question in the minds of any of the people who observed him and/or who observed this situation.” The report, which was submitted by Haley on June 8, then lists six people who concurred.
School officials were not commenting on those questions Thursday night.
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