By Dan Horn
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Mariemont High School students who drank alcohol on a trip to Germany will be punished for breaking school rules, even if they had permission from their parents to sample German beer.

A federal judge ruled Monday that the school's decision to discipline 17 students with detentions and community service did not violate their constitutional rights, as two students had claimed in a lawsuit.

The students and their parents contend that the school left the decision about drinking to them and then changed the rules after a few students drank too much.

School officials said they were clear that no drinking was allowed unless it was in the "controlled environment" of the homes of the families hosting the students during the 10-day foreign exchange.

"It's a cheapening of the constitution to come in here with this kind of claim," the school's lawyer, Gary Winters, said.

Before throwing out the lawsuit, U.S. District Judge S. Arthur Spiegel made it clear that he thought school officials were too lax in their supervision of the students and that trip organizers might have been unclear about the rules regarding alcohol.

He made his comments after hearing testimony from students and teachers about the behavior of students on this year's trip, as well as on past trips. One student passed out from excessive drinking this year and, on a previous trip to Germany, a different student stayed out all night and was brought home to his host family by police.

"I do believe a very careful look needs to be taken by the Mariemont board of education in planning any future trips," Spiegel said.

Parents, however, said school officials told them drinking was common and it would be their "personal decision." "We were told beer gardens in Germany were like Starbucks in the United States," said Pamela Brosch, whose 16-year-old daughter went on the trip.

Throughout the hearing, Spiegel scolded both students and school officials. At one point, he told a student that everyone has an obligation to follow the rules, and later, he lectured the school for being too loose with those rules.