Presumed Guilty

An off-campus rock-throwing incident in San Marcos, Texas, has turned into an important legal battle over school discipline and the constitutional rights of students. At issue is a provision in last year's rewrite of the Texas education code that is designed to keep students suspected of serious off-campus crimes out of regular classrooms.

Nationwide, some school officials have been frustrated to learn they could not prevent students charged with crimes as serious as murder from attending class when the incidents were not school-related. The Texas law provides that "a student shall be removed from class and placed in an alternative education program . . . if the student engages in conduct punishable as a felony." The law does not require the student to be convicted or even charged with a felony before being removed. It applies if the student has merely been implicated in such a crime.

Timothy Nevares, a 15-year-old sophomore at San Marcos High School, has become the law's first legal test. On Jan. 23, Nevares allegedly threw gravel and rocks at a car and injured a passenger. The driver, who apparently knew Nevares, reported him to police. According to John Bennett, Nevares' lawyer, the boy has not been charged with any crime in connection with the incident. Bennett says Nevares and a friend were being harassed by the driver of the car as they walked down the street, so they...